Lucy's Lullaby
by chaoticviolin
Summary: Gray, Natsu and Erza force an exhausted Lucy to go on a mission that goes terribly wrong. Lucy dies and Natsu is torn apart. The team will never be the same. Her keys are heart broken and scattered around the world to prevent any stellar wizard from gaining their power. Everyone believes that Lucy Heartfilia is never coming back. But is she really dead? NaLu ErzaxJellal
1. Chapter 1: Love and Death

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Fairy Tail or any of the characters and so on and so forth.**

**So. I started this FF after listening to the song Lucy by Skillet and after reading to see that I'm not using anyone's ideas, I decided to give it a go myself. It was going to be a one shot, but I think I may drag it on a little longer…**

**Chapter One: Hey Lucy**

_Hey Lucy, I remember your name._

"Luce! Hey, Lucy!"

The blonde girl sighed and lifted her head from where it lay on the bar in front of Mirajane and swore. If this was another mission, she was going to beat Natsu's head against the nearest solid object and demand to know where the hell he got all that energy from.

The past few months had been torture. Erza, Natsu, and Gray all seemed to have some kind of death wish when it came to picking their missions, and when Lucy chose one, they always gave her what she dubbed 'the look'. The look that seemed to mean 'hell _no_ we're not doing something so trivial as defeating just _one_ dragon, let's just find the entire _nest!'_

The blonde would always end up giving in and letting someone else pick the mission, and even though having rent paid for the next seven months was nice, she _and _her celestial spirits would both like a break.

In her desperation, Lucy even offered to skip out on a mission once and let someone else go in her place, but when she got home and fell asleep that night, she was suspiciously on board the train with the three of them (plus Happy) when she woke up the next morning.

She turned away from the energetic figure approaching her and looked at Mira with pleading eyes. The barmaid just smiled as she cleaned a mug carefully for Fried. "Hello, Natsu." She said, smiling over the blonde's shoulder.

Lucy groaned and glared at Mira before turning to Natsu. To everyone else in the guild, her exhaustion was painfully noticeable and they were beginning to worry at the bags her concealer failed to cover. However, Lucy's thick skulled teammates could be persuaded that it was the newest fashion trend and that they would disappear with some exercise.

Natsu gave Lucy a grin and a thumbs up with an enthusiastic, "Hey, Luce! You ready for another mission? This one is 1,000,000 in reward!"

The blonde scowled slightly and took the piece of paper thrust into her face to scan it quickly. Her eyes widened as Natsu took a seat next to her; bouncing his knee in impatience and shaking her own stool slightly with his movement.

"Natsu," she began slowly, "This might be too much for our team. We've been on missions back to back for a while now, and we—well I, am exhausted. _Plus_, they don't know hardly anything about this guy except that everyone that's gone after him hasn't come back."

"When has anything been too much for our team?!" Natsu bellowed, slightly offended.

"Aye!" Happy crowed from next to him, "Though you may be useless at times, Erza, Gray and Natsu usually handle things well."

Lucy's scowled deepened as she bared her teeth at the furry little blue cat munching on a fish, "Shut it, cat! I'm not useless! And Natsu, did you hear a _word_ I said after that? They don't know _anything_ about this guy! It's an S-class mission and I haven't had a very adequate time to recover my magical energy to summon as many spirits as I usually would be able to."

Natsu waved a hand dismissively at her, "Ah, don't worry Lucy; we can handle this together. Erza and Gray are coming too, though I insisted that I—I mean we, don't need the cushion. Besides, he's been messin' with a couple of weaker guilds for a while now and that just isn't right, don't you agree?"

The salamander could see her teetering on the brink of swaying to his side on the issue. If there was one thing that Lucy hated, it was ridiculously strong mages using their magic against others weaker than them. The boy loved that about her; her compassion extended to anyone—whether she knew them or not.

"They even found some of them beaten up and unconscious in their beds; they didn't even have the time or opportunity to fight back!" Happy continued; Natsu nodding solemnly next to him.

Lucy pursued her lips and narrowed her eyes into the distance next to Natsu and pondered as to what to do. It was true, she hated to see others in pain and if she could help out…

_Lucy, you know you're too weak right now; your magical power is at less than half and if you go out and fight—_

Loke's voice from his key on her waist was cut off as Natsu came into her line of vision; making her nearly jump out of her skin in shock at his face being so close. He gave her large, pleading, puppy eyes and got on his knees with his hands clasped in front of him.

"Pleaaassseee Luuuce? Then we'll take a break for…one week! I swear!"

The celestial spirit contemplated this and finally huffed in defeat as she stood, "Alright, fine. Two weeks and you've got a deal—ach!"

Natsu had launched himself off the ground and was currently squeezing the air out of her lungs with both of his large arms. Lucy blushed lightly and patted him on the back twice before his heat was lost to her and he sped off through the doors, leaving her standing in the middle of the guild and closing her eyes in exhaustion.

She followed the trail of the salamander soon after speaking to Erza about the details of when they were going to meet up on the morning. Refusing to groan out loud about the ungodly hour the warrior woman wanted to set out to catch the train, Lucy soon was on the path to her home in search of the few hours of sleep before the mission.

XxX

_Ah, yes. Sleep, wondrous slee—what the hell just moved under my covers? _

Lucy let out a loud shriek and grabbed her whip, slapping it against her own mattress as she stood next to her bed in warning. "NATSU!"

"Ouch Luce, you got my hand that time." He mumbled, rubbing the offending appendage and so obviously not moving off of her bed.

A twitch formed on the girl's forehead as she readied for another attack, "Natsu." she ground through her teeth, "Get. Out."

He looked at her from the vantage point of her bed and was startled at the image his eyes beheld. The moonlight streaming through her window was the only light in the room and it made her entire body glow ethereally. Her loose blonde hair shined around her fierce expression and she held her weapon firmly in her hand as she glared at him with her usually warm chocolate brown eyes.

Natsu blushed and looked away, hoping that she hadn't noticed him ogling her and that the darkness was enough to hide the pink on his cheeks.

He had long cared for Lucy as more than a friend, but wasn't sure how to tell her that without completely crushing the easy friendship they already shared. There was a reason he was giving her a break after this next mission; it would be her birthday on the last day of their stay in the other city and he wanted to show her a place there that was precious to him to tell her how he felt and give her his present.

He'd actually had it for a while now and was sure that she would like the sterling silver ring he had gotten her. When he got it and showed it to Mira for approval, the woman had automatically jumped to the conclusion that he was going to propose to her.

However, that was _not_ the reason he had gotten it. The ring was beautiful and looked like vines snaking around the wearer's finger, but it was magical as well. It was not just a single ring. The ring was for couples, and Natsu had the twin of hers.

It connects the two people together even when they're apart. As he explained to Mira, if Lucy was ever in danger, his ring would turn hot, if she was sad or scared it would turn cold, if she was happy, his ring would expand and the vines would sprout tiny flowers and so on. The salesperson had said that he didn't want to give away any more than that, but the ring had many more reactions and Natsu would have to figure those out on his own.

Mirajane had squealed in delight and got a dreamy expression on her face and began mumbling something about Fried not being that romantic and Natsu had used that time to shuffle away unnoticed and hide them in his house until they set out the next morning.

Another crack came from her whip as she regained his attention. "Natsu! C'mon I'm tired, get off."

"But Lucccyyyy. Please? It's all cold and lonely at my house because Happy is with Carla tonight and my neighbor is blasting music so loud it's rattling my windows and it's snowing outside and our mission is tomorrow, so we're going to the same place and—"

"Alright, _fine. _Just…" She sighed and hung up her whip on the corner of her bed, "move over."

Natsu blinked up at her in shock but quickly scooted over towards her window. He had expected her to yell at him at force him to at least get out of her bed, but she had just given in and was currently sliding under the sheets next to him.

His heart began to hammer against his chest as he stared down at her getting comfortable and heat emanated from everywhere on his body. Lucy turned a questioning look to him from where she lay.

"Are you going to sleep in all those clothes and…sitting up?" She asked, gesturing to his vest and scarf and his current seated position.

He stared at her, down to his chest and then back up to her with a puzzled expression on his face.

_Well, I actually wasn't counting on having a sleepover, I expected you to throw me out! _He thought frantically. _Does she really not see what that question implies? _

Apparently realizing how her words could be taken, she squealed and blushed; covering her mouth in embarrassment and turning on her side to face away from him.

_No, don't turn away from me, _he wanted to tell her, but stopped himself before the words could escape his mouth. Using her averted gaze to his advantage, he shrugged out of his vest, unraveled Igneel's scarf from his neck, and lay down next to her; his shoulder brushing lightly against her back in the small bed.

After a few tense moments, Lucy sighed and most of the rigidness left her body until she shivered; pulling the covers closer around her and away from him. Natsu turned his head towards her as she shifted around to face him with the same pleading eyes he had used on her earlier.

His heart was already painfully slamming against his ribs, but the look on her face made the dragon slayer feel like he would have a heart attack if she kept this up.

"Natsu?" She whispered, her teeth chattering together painfully, "I d-don't want you to think that I'm just using y-you as my own p-p-personal heater or anything, but I'm _fuh-fuh-fuhreezing_ over here_. _Would you m-mind if I…I mean, c-can I, um…"

Natsu swallowed but nodded and grinned at her flushed face to hide his own nervousness about the position.

Lucy smiled shyly up at him and scooted closer to his—she noticed _now_—_bare_ _chest _and pressed her back to the heated skin. The blonde girl sighed and smiled in content as she snuggled closer to Natsu and his heat when she noticed that his arms were still stiff at his sides.

Suppressing her laugh, Lucy reached back and grabbed one, draping it over her waist and lifting her head so he could slide the other under it. After a slight pause, she laid her head on the warm skin of his muscular arm; her practically frozen ear shocking him slightly.

"There," She mumbled tiredly. She could already feel he fringes of sleep closing in on her now that she was warm and comfortable, "goodnight Natsu."

It wasn't until her breathing became even with her slumber that Natsu finally relaxed and forced his heart to beat normally. He bent his head so that it could rest as near to her neck as possible and breathed in her intoxicating scent as his arm tightened around her.

Natsu closed his eyes and smiled into her hair.

He had never been so happy.

XxX

Oh, she was going to kill them. She was going to summon Aquarius and make her shove the both of them into the deepest, darkest part of the ocean.

Lucy was currently occupying the train seat opposite a very smug looking Gray and a knowing Erza while trying to keep Natsu from puking in her lap and hold herself back from killing the two in front of her.

Earlier that morning, both she and Natsu had overslept and Erza and Gray had insisted on going to look for them. The sleeping girl had a rude awakening from the best sleep she had had in a long time by the shocked yells and cries from the two wide eyed teammates in Lucy's house.

Lucy had immediately gone to sit up, but the boneheaded salamander next to her was still in a dreamlike state and continued to hold onto her waist. To her great embarrassment, he rubbed his face against her back, making her blush, Gray to laugh hysterically, and Erza to proclaim that he was ruining her virtue and slam him across the room.

Natsu had grumbled the entire way to the train, but never made eye contact with Lucy which unnerved and irritated her. Even when they were alone for a few seconds before they boarded the train, he rushed the person in front of them to get away from her and not have to speak. As soon as they got to their booth, he tried to sit next to Erza, but Gray beat him to it and smirked, watching as Natsu gloomily sat as far away from Lucy as possible and stared out the window until Erza knocked him out.

Now, she had half a mind to shove his head out of her lap for being such a jerk. There she was, letting him sleep in her bed so he wouldn't have to go home in the snow and be lonely and this is the thanks she gets? Him ignoring her and the other two judging her and snickering behind her back?

Needless to say, after trying to plead with them to leave her alone, she gave up and sat resigned to her fate as they needled her while Natsu got to lay unconscious through the whole thing. Lucy began to get extremely irritated when they kept laughing and was seriously contemplating the idea of throwing herself off the train when it came to a stop and she leapt to her feet to get off.

Apparently seeing that they had angered her, Erza offered to carry her bag as Gray stopped snickering and hefted Natsu onto his back so she wouldn't have to. Lucy studiously ignored the two, still ticked that they would blow such a little thing into some giant happening.

Finally after meeting with the client, Natsu came around and led the way to where this Herule man was last seen near a small guild. Lucy struggled to keep up with the inhuman pace he set and was panting by the time they arrived at the now dark building, having had to use some magical energy to keep up.

All of the lights had been extinguished in the guild and Natsu and Gray had already gone ahead, where the dragon slayer was waving around his flame hands and crying out the man's name. Erza was outside scouting around and Lucy walked over to help her.

"There seems to be more than one pair of footsteps leading to the Guild here, which is odd. There was only one man on the mission, right?"

Lucy nodded and was about to ask how she could help when a crashing was heard from the woods next to them. Both Erza and Lucy's heads snapped in the direction of the sound and could only make out a blur as it smashed into the red headed mage. Lucy let out a shocked cry and pulled out her whip; hoping that Gray and Natsu could come and help so she wouldn't have to use her exhausted magic supply which was somewhere near thirty percent at the moment.

"Gray! Nats—ugh!" Lucy grunted as she was struck to the ground by a hooded figure. Glancing around, she realized the one on top of her was not the one that had tackled Erza; the fierce warrior mage was currently engaging the blonde man in combat as Lucy dodged a punch aimed at her head.

There was no reply from the boys. The sound of a building being torn apart told Lucy that they were fighting and unable to help her.

Quickly, Lucy rolled to her feet and snapped her whip at the cloaked figure, who let out a hearty chuckle as he let it wrap around his arm. The blonde girl's eyes widened and she pulled on it in an attempt to bring it back to her side, but the man used her own whip against her as he yanked it towards him to fling her into the trees behind him.

_He's separating me from the rest of them. _She thought frantically, climbing shakily to her feet. _Crap. I knew I've been using too much magic power lately. _

The man chuckled again as he charged her once more. Lucy quickly went to dodge out of the way, but the man grabbed her foot and used his leverage to whirl her around and toss her even further into the wooded area. She let out a cry of pain as her arm collided with the base of a tree and it snapped in half before her own eyes.

Biting her lip to keep the tears at bay, she propped her body up against the tree and unhooked her keys from her belt, shuffling them until she found Loke's. Raising her shaking arm, she cried, "Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

Immediately, he appeared at her side and turned to ask her if she was alright when a voice caused him to turn around.

"Ah, a celestial mage eh?" The man laughed again as he removed his hood. Lucy gasped in horror. This was the man from the pictures. This was an S-class mage. _This_ was Herule.

"Well, well, well, this won't be much fun for me I see, especially since you're at such a low magic level, so I'll just have to _make_ it fun!" He cried, smiling maniacally.

Loke turned to Lucy with a crazed look in his eye. "Lucy, you have to send me back—"

He suddenly bent over in pain and Lucy rushed to his side, placing an arm on his back in worry. "Loke? Loke what is it? What's wrong?"

He did not reply and instead jerked to an upright position, his face scrunched up in pain.

"I believe he is talking about my puppeteer abilities, my dear. You see, you give me enough time and I can control _anything. _A spirit, a human, a _rock. Anything. _So don't you see? You just gave me my very own celestial spirit and my hold is so strong now that you have no chance of closing his gate!"

Lucy stared in horror at Loke's pained face as he complied with his puppet master's pulling at his strings. "Lucy, I'm so sorry—"

"Ah ah ah, no talking," Herule chided. "Now, attack!"

Loke charged Lucy head on and knocked her and her bloody and broken arm against the cluster of trees nearby, making her feel like a ping pong ball as she ricocheted against them. Wobbly, she regained her footing and reached for Aries' key to snap Loke out of this and cut the wires holding him to the mage, but remembered that that would only hurt her.

Frustrated, she pulled out her whip and frowned deeply. She had to try, even if that meant accidentally hitting her own spirit.

"What was _that_?! That blow should have done much more damage!" Herule exclaimed, but took in Lucy's hunched figure and seemed out the pieces together. "Oh, it's because you're so _weak_! Oh well, one more attack from ol' Leo here and he should disappear out of magical exhaustion from you, and then my fun begins!"

Loke charged Lucy once again and she made to dodge out of the way and fling her whip at the same time, but he was faster. Her own celestial spirit threw her to the ground and pinned her down; all the while striking her body anywhere he could reach and causing blood to pool out of her mouth and nose. Lucy cried out in pain and begged Loke to stop, but his face remained emotionless as she struck her again and again.

Finally, Herule seemed to grow bored and pulled Loke off of her and into a fighting position once more, waiting for her to stand on her feet one more time.

"Now, Leo, Regulus!"

The bright beam of light struck Lucy and every other tree behind her, torching them and clearing a path straight away from the guild. As she lay in the torched remains of a tree, she felt Loke return and hoped that he knew that she didn't blame him for anything.

Her arm was a mess, she was exhausted, and she wasn't sure if she would make it through this one. Lucy stared at the clouds above her and thought of her teammates. Especially Natsu, and the way his arms felt around her. She would miss that; even if he was being a total ass to her at the moment and ignoring her.

_One more time, _she thought.

Herule grabbed her by the front of her shirt and tossed her to a tree where she propped herself up once again.

Taking a deep breath, she hollered with all her might, "NATSU!"

"Enough!" Herule yelled, loading an arrow in the bow he carried under his cloak and popping the cork on a bottle he got out of his pouch on his leg. "Now, there is another thing about puppeteers I did not tell you, my blond haired beauty."

Lucy watched in disgusted fascination as he dipped the tip of his arrow into the liquid and smiled at her, "We also like to dabble in poison, and this is a mixture that I've just been dying to try on someone and I think I'd like to use you as my lab rat. Isn't that fun?!"

He aimed the arrow straight at her. She weakly moved her whip towards him, but it was easily dodged as darkness crept into her vision from fatigue.

She heard the whistle of the arrow through the air and closed her eyes.

As it made impact right over her heart, Lucy let out the tears she had been holding in. If this poison didn't kill her, the shot would and Natsu didn't save her like he'd promised.

_Natsu never came to help me. _She thought. She wasn't angry; just shocked.

"Now, don't cry." He consoled, stroking her cheek, "At least you'll die knowing you were a help to someone—oh god _damnit_." He cursed under his breath as his head swiveled in the direction of the guild and then back to her. "Well, looks as if you won't be." He said, walking away from her once again and cocking an arrow.

"Won't be…what?" She panted. Was it just her, or was her heart slowing down?

"A help to me." Was his muffled reply through her haze of pain as he launched another arrow, and then two more after that.

Lucy looked down at her bloodied shirt filled with arrows protruding from her torso as she sank down to her knees, looking up to see the sky one last time. She frowned when she realized she couldn't because of all the leaves blocking her view and instead closed her eyes to feel the sun's rays dancing on her face through the trees.

Herule had long since disappeared and she could not help but to be disappointed that she couldn't handle him. With her full power maybe, but not like this.

"Lucy?"

"Luucyyyy!"

She opened her bleary eyes as she heard her friends calling out for her. Lucy opened her mouth to yell for them, but all that came out was a quiet whimper.

"I know she called my name! Where is she?"

_Natsu, of course. _She thought.

"It came from over—LUCY!"

His scream reached her ears and she let her chin rest on her chest in hopes of not having to see his disappointed expression. She knew he would be disappointed in her and have no false hope like he did with Lisanna's death that she was still alive.

Because she knew that she was going to die here.

Natsu slid to his knees in front of her and reached his hands out, but wasn't sure where to put them, she was just so riddled with _arrows_ and broken bones.

"ERZA where are you? GRAY!" He hollered over his shoulder and when she saw that they were approaching, she reached out and touched him on his shoulder.

"It's okay…" She mumbled. "Don't…be sad…"

Natsu turned to her with tears streaming down his cheeks and cupped her face gently, boring his eyes into hers with fierce determination. "We're gonna get you out of here, Luce. I promise, you're going to be okay." His voice cracked on the last word and Lucy smiled sadly.

She could feel her spirits crying out for her, but none of them could pass through with her being so close to death.

"Lucy!" Erza cried, falling to her knees next to Natsu who turned to her with a pleading expression.

"Isn't there anything we can do? _Anything_?!" He screamed frantically.

"I…I don't know!" Erza cried, "Lay her down!"

Natsu and Gray readily obeyed and both tried to ignore the pained whimpers of their Celestial Spirit mage as they moved her.

"You're going to be okay. You're going to be alright Luce, just hang in there." Natsu kept chanting as he pet her hair.

"Maybe if Wendy were here…" Erza mumbled, but shook her head, crying out in frustration, "But that's too far away!"

"Happy! Go get Wendy!" Gray shouted at the small animal, only making him cry harder.

"GRAY! Yelling at him isn't going to make things better! It's too far and you know that!" Erza yelled, pointing at Gray menacingly.

"Guys…" Lucy mumbled, "Don't fight…"

"HEY SHUT UP!" Natsu yelled, tears beginning anew at the sound of her voice.

All was quiet and Lucy took this opportunity to say goodbye; her time was almost up, she could feel it.

"Lucy please, just hang in there; Happy's gone to get a medic from town that can hopefully help." Erza said gently.

Lucy smiled at her fierce warrior friend and turned her gaze to envelop them all. "Live your lives to the fullest please; that's what I want you to do. If you don't, I'll come back and haunt you all." She said, chuckling slightly, which made her cough and gurgle on her own blood.

"Stop it Lucy!" Natsu's choked cry begged. "Save your breath!"

"Natsu…" She forced out.

_Uh oh, I can feel the darkness… _she thought, making her heart work harder to keep her alive for just a second longer.

"Natsu, I –I love…I…"

Lucy sucked in a breath, "I love you, Natsu Dragneel!"

Her last breath spent, Natsu crushed his lips against hers and kissed her with a feeling of heart wrenching sadness. He pulled away and watched as she smiled slightly and the last bit of light went out from her eyes.

Lucy Heartfilia was dead.

X

x

X

**Please review and let me know what you think! **


	2. Chapter 2: Raining Tears

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Fairy Tail!**

**Chapter Two: Raining Tears**

_I left a dozen roses on your grave today  
I'm in the grass on my knees, wipe the leaves away  
I just came to talk for a while, got some things I need to say_

Natsu did not give up hope.

When Lucy went still in his arms and the blood in her cheeks went pale, Natsu Dragneel did not stop to think that she was really gone. She _couldn't_ be gone; she was _Lucy_.

She was always there in her small home ready and welcoming to her companions. Even when she demanded some privacy, she wouldn't kick them out and would instead lend them a hand in whatever they needed.

Her spirits loved her, her friends loved her, _he_ loved her.

The dragon slayer tightened his grip on the blonde girl and listened intently for the flutter of her steady heartbeat he'd heard only a few nights before as she slept softly beside him. All was silent and Natsu did not look up at his friends or down at Lucy's arrow ridden body but instead at her face for fear that he would sink into a depression so fierce that he wouldn't even want to move.

"…Lucy? Can you hear me?" He whispered into her hair; knowing full well that he wasn't going to get an answer.

Erza looked on with tears in her eyes as she tried to stifle her sobs into her fist. She had known about Natsu's plan for Lucy's birthday and his deep feelings for her, and to watch them all crumble broke her heart. If anyone deserved happiness, it would be the pink haired dragon slayer that cared so much for everyone.

The ice mage peered into the distance over the tops of the trees in search of the flying blue cat; still refusing to give up hope on Lucy himself. Gray crossed his arms and forced himself to assess the damage that Erza and Natsu seemed so determined to ignore.

Lucy had at least four long arrows completely embedded under her skin; one even looked like a bulls-eye for her heart. Her blood was everywhere, but mostly on the tree he assumed she had leaned against. Her arm was a broken mess and it seemed as if someone had bulldozed a straight line of trees away from the guild they were there to defeat.

Gray's eyes furrowed. The only thing that could make such a slice in the ground was Loke, but why would he aim Regulus against his own master?

"I brought him! And Wendy should be in the town in about ten minutes!" Happy shouted as he descended from the sky with a rather frazzled-looking medic in tow.

When the man gained his footing, he immediately dropped next to Lucy and glanced at Natsu. The boy had unconsciously pulled the blonde's head into his lap and was glaring at the medic in rage.

"Well _do_ _something_." He gritted between his teeth.

Nodding frantically, the man pressed his head against her chest and frowned. Lifting his head up once again, he pushed over her heart and listened; repeating this many times, the man finally sat back on his legs and regarded Erza in sadness.

"I'm so sorry, but I'm afrai—"

"Don't even say it." Natsu growled, keeping his eyes trained on Lucy's face as tears began to build up once again.

"Natsu…"Erza began.

"We're here! Where is Lucy? I…can….help!" Wendy huffed as she sprinted into the clearing; Carla right behind her as she floated in the air.

Three pairs of despair ridden eyes met hers, but her sights were already set on her fellow dragon slayer and the girl in his arms. Natsu did not look her in the eye, but allowed Wendy to set Lucy out of his lap and onto the grass.

She looked up at Natsu with a grieved face, "You may not want to watch this part."

When she got no reaction from the pink haired boy and no one else seemed to listen to her, she shrugged her shoulders minutely and sighed quietly; grasping the first arrow in her hand and pressing her other palm down on Lucy to keep her body down.

The arrows made a disgusting squelching sound as Wendy removed them from Lucy's torso and the three teammates around them flinched in response. Natsu balled his hands into fists at his sides to keep from halting the medic's movements, though he knew deep down that Lucy was not in any pain anymore.

When the blue haired girl finally finished and had a pile of bloody arrows next to her, she hovered her hands over the crumpled body and focused on her healing.

Wendy's eyebrows furrowed. There was something else in Lucy's system, but before she could put her finger on what exactly it was, it was gone. Mentally, the girl shrugged. It wasn't like removing it from her body now would do any good anyway. With a heavy heart, she opened her eyes and kept them downward as she scanned Lucy's body.

Her bloody clothes were now the only sign that she was injured at all in the first place. Wendy had healed the broken bones and holes in her torso made by the arrows; she'd even gotten there in time to heal her slightly wounded heart!

Tears began to run down her face. But she hadn't gotten there in time enough to save her friend from her untimely death.

Slowly, Wendy reached up and closed Lucy's glassy eyes and maneuvered her hands so that they folded over her belly.

Glancing up at the team through her eyelashes with tears stuck to them, she knew that they were aware that there was nothing she could do. All of them, except for Natsu.

"Wendy! You're just going to give up that easily?! You brought Jellal back from the dead! Bring her back! Bring Lucy back too!"

The blue haired girl stayed silent and stared at her hands clasped in her lap as she cried. She _couldn't_ revive Lucy in the same way as Jellal! Couldn't he see that she would have already done that if she could?

"Wendy! _Please_!" Natsu cried, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her slightly.

"Enough!" Carla demanded, flying between the two dragon slayers. "She cannot revive your Lucy. Jellal was in a state caused by the Lacrima he was in and as you can see, she is in no such condition. The best you can do is give her death proper acknowledgement and celebrate her life when she lived it."

The exceed's words shattered the small amount of hope the Fairy Tail wizards held and Natsu crumbled into Erza'a waiting arms; the two of them sobbing uncontrollably. Gray looked on as his own silent tears fell down his cheeks and Carla regarded him with pity.

"You must get her back to Fairy Tail if you wish to bury her there. Wendy can place her in a state where the body will not begin to, er, deteriorate, but that will only last so long. A funeral is needed for Lucy-chan, and waiting around will not do her memory any good."

Gray nodded once and bent to scoop Lucy into his arms, but was halted when Natsu grabbed his arm. "No, I'll do it." He rasped, gathering Lucy and pulling her cooling body in close to his chest.

Stepping away, Gray grunted a forced affirmative and instead walked next to Erza, making sure that the weapons mistress did not fall over in grief.

XxX

It rained.

Just like at Erza's 'funeral', it rained.

But unlike the weapon's mistress' funeral, Natsu did not interrupt. In fact, he was not in the crowd the day they buried his Lucy. Instead he watched from afar as they lowered her elaborately decorated coffin into the ground with the girl he loved and some of her more prized belongings inside.

The pink haired man's thoughts drifted back to when Fairy Tails so-called 'strongest team' brought back one of their own bloody and beaten member.

Natsu had walked through the doors of the guild with a sullen look on his puffy face as the cheers died down and quieted with his appearance and the limp body in his arms.

Cana put down her keg, Macao and Wakaba stopped fighting, and Mirajane gasped in horror. Immediately, she sprinted around the counter of the bar; Levy hot on her heels.

"Lucy-chan!" Levy yelled, stopping about a foot away from the despairing boy. Gajeel quickly left whatever menial task he was doing to appear at her side as she began to sob.

"What happened?" Mirajane asked quietly, reaching out to touch Natsu on the shoulder, but dropping it when he flinched away from her. The white haired woman frowned and her heart stuttered. Natsu _never_ denied friendly contact. "Where's Wendy? She can help!" She continued, scanning the guild for a familiar shade of blue.

"We tried," A new voice came from behind Natsu. Heads swiveled in the direction of the sound and gasped when their sights landed on the red haired weapons mistress. "We brought Wendy to Lucy, but—but…" her voice broke and Erza stopped talking for fear that the entire guild would see her mourn.

The Fairy Tail members looked at each other in heartbreak. For the first time in a long time, the entire guild was silent.

"What happened?" came a voice from the bar. Makarov looked at the three despairing wizards, his eyes resting finally on the one most likely to give him an answer.

Gray shifted uncomfortably in place as all eyes of the guild members rested on him and thought that it might be better to discuss the matter in private, but knew that the rest of them would eventually find out anyway.

He took a deep breath and focused on Mirajane instead of his master's piercing gaze.

"We went on a mission to stop an unruly wizard. We knew the risks, but when we got there, there was more than just the one we thought we were facing and we got split up…and Lucy…she got stuck with the head of the dark guild. We didn't know much about him in the first place, but this….we never thought that this…"

Finally, Gray broke down. Turning his back on the rest of the guild, he wiped away the water beginning to seep from his eyes. Pain churned in his chest, but it wasn't from his own slight wounds he knew. It was something all three of the remaining team felt.

Guilt.

"It's my fault. All my fault." Natsu mumbled, coming back from the painful memory from a few days ago.

The pink haired dragon slayer watched helplessly as the guild members began saying their last goodbyes to the blonde celestial wizard and tossing dirt onto her coffin.

Makarov rose from his place in the crowd to stand in front of the guilds that had amassed there. "We are all here because somewhere, somehow, Lucy Hearfilia touched our hearts. Lucy was a kind girl who was compassionate towards all and did not deserve this death, but many people die in missions and wars."

"We as humans are capable of many great things, but are also easily killed and hurt. There is nothing harder than accepting the death of someone you love; someone who had hopes and dreams just like us. One person can only do so much and protect so many people, that we must protect those closest to our hearts no matter the consequences!" Makarov paused and cleared his throat to continue on.

"We fight others, and ignore the fact that, just like us, they have families waiting for them at home that they will no longer see alive! We must accept the fact that sometimes the casualties will come back to hit us in the most uncertain ways."

Finally, their leader reached out to the headstone and patted it affectionately, "Lucy, you will always be missed here, but I pray that you find happiness wherever you are now."

Natsu clutched the now black ring that hung from the chain on his neck and knew that the other was with Lucy in that dark and lonely coffin.

When he'd been alone with Lucy's body the day before, he'd slipped the twin of his ring around her neck as well, so she could have it with her wherever she was. The rings had both suspiciously turned the coal black color after Lucy's untimely death and Natsu bitterly wondered if that had ever happened before to someone who bought the ring before they could even give it to the person they loved when they were alive.

He watched Erza walk up to the grave with Jellal at her side and he couldn't help the pang of anger and jealousy at the sight. _She_ got the one she loved and _he_ came back from the dead! Resentment bubbled in the back of Natsu's mind, but he quickly shoved it away and clenched his teeth as he saw Erza begin to cry once again.

The rain was light, but it was enough to cut the burial shorter than usual and after the tears were shed that mingled with the rain, the Fairy Tail members all slowly scattered and walked away to do their own grieving in peace.

Gray and Erza lingered a little longer than the others, but Natsu didn't mind waiting. It wasn't like he had anywhere to go anyway. Now that Lucy was…gone.

He cringed at the word and dug through his pocket where her keys rested for the moment.

Pulling them out, he stared at them and wondered what he was supposed to do with them now. Should he sell them? Give them to a deserving Celestial Spirit Mage?

As if sensing his distress, Loke's key began to glow and Natsu shoved them back into his pocket quickly; he didn't want to have to explain to him how and why his master and friend died.

Glancing down from where he was perched, he saw that Gray and Erza had left and they'd finished with the burial. The only thing standing in the rain was Lucy's isolated headstone.

Natsu swiftly leapt down to stand in front of the engraved piece of stone. Rain fell down the contents carved there like tears and the dragon slayer set down the flowers he'd carried there as he fell to his knees and bowed his head.

"Lucy…" He began, choking on his words and losing his courage, "Lucy, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. All of this is my fault."

He'd told himself that he wouldn't cry over her grave in memory of her happiness, but that was serving to be a moot point as they began to leak down his cheeks anyway.

"Luce, you were right. We shouldn't have gone on that mission. If only I had listened to you…you even told me that you hadn't had time to rest, but I ignored that and forced you to go anyway. If you had told Erza or even Gray, they would have said you could stay here, but I…I'm an idiot." He whispered, brushing his hand over her name in front of him.

"I ignored you and went ahead of you and you kept calling out my name, but I wasn't there when you needed me and we got separated and… and that _monster_ used you as _target_ _practice_." He spat, but quickly smothered his rage; he was here for Lucy—to make his condolences, not to play the blame game.

He sighed and rose to his feet. "Happy Birthday, Lucy. I'll always love you."

Natsu looked to the sky and let the rain wash away the traces of tears.

In the distance, a rainbow was formed.

X

x

X

**Wayyy shorter than I would have liked, but I wanted to get this out to you guys in thanks for all your lovely reviews! **

**I'll be personally sending all of you a thank you PM!**

**Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 3: Bones to Pick

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Fairy Tail **

**Chapter Three: Bones to Pick**

_Now that it's over,_

_I just wanna hold her,_

_I'd give up all the world to see,_

_That little piece of heaven looking back at me;_

Six months passed and the Fairy Tail guild still operated as usual, but there was a hole in the hearts of every member.

Natsu and Gray had not fought since the funeral and time found a much more subdued version of the dragon slayer sitting quietly at a table surrounded by Erza, Gray, Happy and Lisanna. The four chatted in their corner of the building, and Natsu was not unaware of the pitying glances he was getting form them.

He had yet to allow them to sell Lucy's house as the rent was already paid for the seven months since the mission. That left him just one more month to come to terms with losing yet another piece of her, and the rest of the guild wondered how the pink haired man would handle it.

It had taken two months of persuading and threats on Makarov's part to make the broken team accept a mission. During that time, Natsu had been overly protective and tried to take all of the damage aimed at anyone and had been excessively reckless on his part. This of course infuriated Erza and she had yelled at him, but the words that had made him pause and think still rang in his head every time they would leave the guild.

"_Is that what you think Lucy would want?! She told you to _live_ Natsu, and you're spitting on her grave by acting this way!"_

Her words were harsh but necessary and he knew that.

Natsu watched his friends as they joked and laughed with each other, but lately he could not bring himself to smile or laugh like usual. His teammates had commented that he'd become more powerful, but he didn't really care. He didn't care about much anymore, actually.

Beginning to feel suffocated by the guild and its members, Natsu pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the job board. Just when he was about to reach out and grab a job, a soft voice interrupted behind him.

"Natsu, you've been taking a lot of jobs lately…I think you and your team may need a break..." Mira began gently.

Natsu whirled on her in anger and shock. Those were almost the exact words Lucy had said to him the day he convinced her to go on that mission with her. Wait, was Mira trying to remind him of her or something? She _was_ standing right there behind the counter when he'd asked Lucy to go that day that seemed so long ago!

The dragon slayer allowed flames to engulf his hands as he marched menacingly up to the harmless girl. "Why are you bringing that up? I _know_ I killed her! You don't have to keep telling me that!" He snarled.

Shock overrode the bartender's feature as she looked at him in fear, "N-natsu, that's not what I meant, I didn't say anything about Lucy-chan…"

The boy was still completely irate and continued to back the frightened girl into a corner when he was grabbed by his collar from behind.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Natsu? What's gotten into you?" Gray shouted.

The boy struggled against the ice mage's hold and eventually broke it; charging at him head on. Gray blocked the flames with an ice wall, but his shield was completely shattered after Natsu weakened it and clawed his way through it. Finally close enough to attack physically, the two mages beat each other with fists and anything else they could find.

Natsu throttled Gray in the face and the ice mage kicked him in the gut in retaliation. Gray broke off a piece of chair leg and the pink haired boy grabbed a metal plate off a nearby table, both marching towards each other with malice in their eyes. They rolled all over the guild halls, throwing curses and insults the entire time.

Suddenly, both boys were ripped apart by the backs of their collars and held in the air by an irate Erza Scarlet. She looked at the two boys who were still struggling against her hold in exasperation and annoyance.

"Don't you two think you could at least pretend to like each other every once in a while?!" She shouted.

"But he was—" Gray started.

"He should have—" Natsu grumbled.

Both boys stilled to cross their arms and glare at each other across the few feet separating them by Erza's body.

"That's better." She said as she put them down. "Now, I want you two to—_damn_ _it_ you two idiots!" Erza growled as they went at it again. This time, instead of playing nice Erza, she rolled up her sleeves and entered the brawl as well.

Emerging victorious, she grabbed both boys by the ankles and hung them on either side of her.

"You go that way," She started, tossing Gray to the back of the guild, "and you go that way until you cool off!" she demanded, punting Natsu out the doors and into the dusk of yet another day.

Grumbling to himself as he got to his feet, Natsu stretched and let out a content sigh. That felt right, fighting with Gray instead of just lazing around all day like he normally did. Maybe that's what Lucy meant when she told them to live their lives. She didn't want them to be sad or continue to mourn when she was no longer around; the celestial spirit mage wanted them to get along and move on.

Natsu shook his head and began leisurely walking to Lucy's grave. He visited it every day around this time. He preferred it if he went alone, but sometimes Happy or Levy or even Mira would offer to join him and he would let them. It wasn't up to him who could and couldn't visit Lucy.

The pink haired boy passed very few people on the streets and almost all paid him no mind. They were all probably the stragglers from their work day and they were just trying to get home to their families. Sadness bloomed in his heart once again. Fairy Tail was the closest thing to a family he had and he was treating them awfully.

Lucy's death had been hard on Natsu, but he was being selfish if he thought that he was the only one suffering. Thinking back, he realized that Erza had begun to look tired more often and no longer bossed everyone around like she used to. Gray had become even more detached from everyone, even ignoring Juvia to the point where she hardly even came around anymore.

Even the people who weren't on their team were still mourning. Wendy hadn't come to Fairy Tail but once and even then, she refused to look Natsu in the eye. Happy explained later that it was because she blamed herself for Lucy's death and his own unhappiness. Natsu had immediately set out to tell her not to blame herself, but she was already gone and had not returned since.

Happy no longer enjoyed just the thought of fish and no longer had his undying love set on Carla, which made the white exceed worried. Mirajane had tried to counsel him on how she got through Lisanna's 'death', but he didn't want to listen and she eventually stopped trying. She hadn't sung or hummed since Lucy had been absent and she no longer tried to match make in the guild.

Levy dearly missed her friend and was constantly at Gajeel's side, who tried to protect her from most of the depressed feelings going through the guild. Even Cana had upped her count of drinks in order to try and forget.

Natsu stopped on the dimly lit street.

And Makarov had barely come out of his office the first couple of weeks. He'd told Natsu that it felt like losing his own child. Eventually though, he picked himself up and returned to the land of the living; trying to pump everyone back up and only halfway succeeding. Though he was still hurting inside, their master had to be the leader and show them that life did go on after a death.

Turning on his heel, Natsu Dragneel walked and then ran back to the guild as quickly as possible. He had to make things right between everyone. Fairy Tail was his family after all, as it was to many of the people who joined in its halls, and family was always there for each other when they needed someone to lean on.

Family didn't suffer alone.

XxX

Natsu had given Makarov Lucy's keys a couple of weeks after her funeral and had asked him if he knew what to do with them.

The leader of Fairy Tail scrolled through each key on the celestial spirit mages' ring and looked up at Natsu. "Are you sure you don't want to do this yourself? You knew her best…"

He nodded in the affirmative. "They can't be summoned because none of us here are summoners and they're not serving any purpose if they're just chained up like this. I think Lucy would want them to find kind masters like her and live out their lives the way they want to."

Makarov eyed the keys in front of him. He would have to split them up. Just giving one magician these many keys at once was just asking for disaster.

"Alright, Natsu. I'll find them good homes, but I'll have to scatter them. I can't have one power hungry celestial mage hunting down another just because they know they have some of these from around the area."

Natsu frowned but agreed. He didn't like the fact that they would no longer be together, but if it meant keeping them in the hands of kind masters, he would do whatever it took to keep what Lucy wanted alive.

Now, six months later, Makarov stared at the one key he could not stand to give up for anything. Loke had been a member of his guild, and celestial spirit or not, the old man always thought of him like one of his children as well.

"I wish you would just hurry up and pop out of that key already, or whatever you do, Loke. I need to talk to you." He grumbled irritably.

Faintly, he began to see a dim glow erupt from the golden key as he had the past couple of times he'd spoken to it. But eventually, it faded out and winked away.

"Damnit, Loke! I know you can hear me and I know you can pass through the gate by yourself. I need to speak with you!" Makarov thundered, slamming the key down on his desk and pointing at it threateningly.

After a few beats of silence and no movement from the golden key, Makarov sighed and set his face. Fine then. He didn't want to have to stoop so low as this, but he was getting impatient and so were the other guild members.

"It's about Lucy." The light flared. "You know, your old master? The one that died because you couldn't protect her?"

A blinding light exuded from the zodiac key on his desk and Makarov had to shield his eyes as Loke dropped down in his office, his hair a disheveled mess and his eyes red and puffy.

That did not take away from the fact that he was _pissed_.

"First you take away all of my companions, all of the friends that Lucy strove to gain and make happy, and now you insult me and my ability to protect her?!" Loke roared, a golden light emitting from every part of his skin.

Makarov raised his hands in a show of surrender. "I had to call you through like that. You weren't answering me otherwise. And you know why I had to split you guys up; in the wrong hands, all of you could be used for very inhumane things."

Loke dimmed down the light from the Regulus star and regarded the man in front of him warily, "Then what do you want, Makarov?"

The old man sighed and hopped on his desk lightly, "As you know, Lucy has perished," he chose to ignore the flinch that his sentence induced on the spirit and pressed on, "and no one else has the account on what happened." He finished, looking at the orange haired man expectantly.

Loke had a distraught look on his face and Makarov fixed him with a steady gaze. The head of Fairy Tail knew that something terrible had happened for Loke not to come to his master's side even if she didn't call for it; so why hadn't he protected Lucy?

"I…we…she didn't know anything about the person she was up against and he was the strongest and the leader of who they were supposed to terminate on their mission." Loke began uncertainly, looking out the window of Makarov's office and replaying the entire thing in his head like he had been doing for the past couple of days.

"Lucy got separated and called on me after she broke her arm when this Herule person kept tossing her around like some kind of ragdoll. As soon as she summoned me and he started to talk, I knew what he was. I tried to get her to put me back in my gate and even tried to force close myself, but it was too late; he had complete control of me."

"A puppetmaster." Makarov stated despairingly.

Loke nodded, "Yes, and when he took control, I had no handle on anything I did…he made me hurt her…made me beat Lucy until she could barely move…and then use Regulus on her. That _bastard_ made me weaken her so that he could have 'fun' with her pain.

"I was forced back into my gate by Lucy's exhaustion, but I held on long enough to hear what he said to her about his poisons and how he wanted to try one out on her. I think he may have been able to get Lucy with one, but he couldn't record his results because Natsu and the others _finally_ showed up after she screamed for him multiple times."

Makarov could feel the hatred Loke emitted. At her teammates for not being there when she needed them most, at Herule for killing her, and self-loathing toward himself for not being strong enough to save her. As master, he felt it was his job to tell him what he thought Lucy would say in this instant.

"I'm sure Lucy didn't blame you for anything you did. You were under this Herule's spell and she knew that. Lucy would not be mad at you and you know it."

"Yes, that may be true," He whispered as his anger evaporated and turned to grief and he began to fade back into the spirit world to grieve in isolation, "But we'll never know will we? Lucy's dead."

Makarov sighed and looked out the window as the key fell to the floor with a dull thump. He picked it up and placed it in the magically sealed envelope he planned on using to send the key to its new master.

"Good luck, Loke. Don't disappoint Lucy." He mumbled to the piece of paper he wrapped it in, snapping his fingers and sending it away through the magical realm.

Now alone in his office, Makarov let his head slap against the papers he had stacked on his desk and sighed in exhaustion and heartbreak.

"I'm getting too old for this."

XxX

Mira picked at the flowers she held in her hands for the umpteenth time that night in unease.

The white haired woman had had a feeling in her gut the entire day that something bad was going to happen, but nothing in the guild had occurred out of the ordinary all day. Even when Natsu had yelled and cornered her, she knew that he was just hurting and that he didn't really mean the things he said. She was especially positive when after Erza had split them up and Natsu was gone, the feeling returned with gusto.

She frowned. So if it wasn't something in the guild and it wasn't anything dealing with her, then why was her stomach in knots?

Mira pursued her lips and continued down the dimly lit sidewalk she walked on alone as she peered into the darkness.

She was worried when Natsu had burst into the large double doors a few minutes ago with flushed cheeks and a crazed expression. Her heart dropped to her stomach and her blood had run cold for the moments of silence that enveloped the room before he spoke.

Mira had gripped the bar in front of her and watched as the pink haired man took a breath and then let out everything that had been bothering him. Lucy's death, he said, had taken a toll on them all and he was being cruel to assume that he was the only one suffering.

After apologizing for his behavior, Natsu continued to confess about his guilt and love for the girl he had lost. The last statement was no real shock to the guild members, but when tears began leaking from his eyes, they understood the extent of love he felt and just like any good family would, they crowded around him and gave comfort.

That was when Mira had quietly taken her leave.

After watching for some time the emotions on everyone's face, her stomach began to toss for some reason and she decided that she may be sick. But when she got outside and the feeling still hadn't left her, the barmaid decided to just let herself be guided by the feeling.

That, she supposed, was how she had stopped by the closing flower shop and bought Lucy's favorite Moon flowers in pink and headed out to her grave.

And now as she approached her dear friend's tomb, Mira placed the flowers down at the base of the headstone and knelt on her knees to brush some of the dry twigs and leaves away. Mira sighed quietly and stared intently at her name.

_Lucy Heartfilia._

_July 1, X767- July 1, X785_

_Beloved daughter and above all,_

_Respected Fairy Tail member._

This just did not seem sufficient to describe her bubbly, caring and loving friend who could turn any gloomy day into a fun one; especially with Natsu around.

_Oh Natsu, _Mira thought miserably, _you loved her so much and yet that happiness was stolen from you as well. _

Massaging the area above her heart, the white haired woman clutched both hands in front of her and bent her head.

"Oh Lucy," she whispered to the grass below her, "I wish you could be here. Natsu is tearing himself apart over you and all the rest of us can do is stand by and watch. His happiness seems to be sucked away from him and even Gray and Erza can't muster up a good fight anymore."

She sighed and a lone tear fell from her eye, "I feel like this is all just a dream and that you are still at home reading or writing your novel and we just haven't found your secret hiding place just yet. I know it's foolish to hope, but Lisanna...well, we all thought that she was gone as well and…she…wasn't…"

Mira trailed off and shook herself as her hands dropped by her sides and her head tilted towards the moon. She couldn't expect miracles all the time, but just this one more time…

"I just wish we knew what happened." She whispered into the night.

Mira stayed there silent for a while and listened to the trees rustle above her, just as she had when she would visit Lisanna's grave. But when the night grew even darker and the wind picked up with what she assumed would be a storm, Mira decided that she should head home.

Dusting herself off, she rose from her seat and headed towards town, but at the last second glanced back.

Where before she felt better at having gone there, leaving felt wrong and that odd feeling returned to her stomach, but this time she could place it.

Foreboding.

XxX

Later that night when all of the Fairy Tail members slept soundly in their homes or the halls of the guild, two shadowed figures crept into the now abandoned graveyard and spoke in whispers.

"This is the right one right?" The one holding the shovels asked.

The other nodded and dropped the unlit flashlight to free his hands, "Yeah, she's buried with _tons _of stuff. She's a Heartfilia and her daddy was loaded so her coffin is probably even worth some money."

The other paused in the act of digging to look wide eyed at the other, "You mean," he whispered, "we're going to have to _move_ and _touch_ her dead body?"

"_Yes_." The other hissed irritably, shoving the tip of the shovel hard into the ground and glancing at the other in annoyance, "Are you going to stand there looking like an idiot or help me out?"

Stuttering incompetently, the man quickly scuttled to the position opposite to his friend and the two dug in silence for a few minutes until a hollow thud reached their ears.

X

x

X

**CLIFFHANGER! **

**Please review! **


	4. Chapter 4: Forgotten

**Disclaimer:**** Fairy Tail is not mine!**

** Chapter Four: Forgotten**

_Now that it's over,_

_I just wanna hold her;_

_I've gotta live with the choices I made,_

_And I can't live with myself today..._

It was dark.

It was dark and lonely and hot and hard to breath and Lucy was beginning to panic when she couldn't move more than a centimeter on either side of her shoulders.

_Where am I? _She wondered as she consciously slowed her erratic breathing. Lucy lifted her arms from the elbow and her knuckles slammed against the lid of whatever she was in.

The only thing she remembered was going on that last mission…and being overwhelmed by Herule…and…

Dying.

Her eyes widened in astonishment but couldn't see anything because of the darkness surrounding her. Lucy closed her eyes to keep from panicking and wriggled her hips around to listen for the comforting sound of her keys but none came.

Frowning to herself, she began to sort out in her head the possibilities of where she could be. It seemed highly improbable that she would still be in the forest where she was shot, and the people who found her wouldn't just leave her there, right?

Her heart sunk at the realization of where she was.

Buried alive.

_Just stay calm, Lucy. Someone will come…because…I won't go to the guild and—wait. They all think I'm dead. God _damnit_! _

A pink haired boy's smiling face formed beneath her eyelids.

"Natsu…" She whispered.

Tears collected at the corner of her eyes and her stomach growled. She could remember the last desperate look on his face right before consciousness was lost to her. Just how long had she been under there?

Frantically, she searched as well as she could the contents of what was buried with her. Coins, jewels, dresses, what felt like shriveled dead flowers…useless, useless, _useless! _

_ Thunk!_

A knock on the top of her coffin startled her and made her heart beat fast. Could someone have figured out that she was alive? Lucy opened her mouth to call out for whoever it was, but her voice was hoarse from disuse and all that came out was a quiet whisper.

"Yes! Even the _coffin_ is fancy and gold trimmed!" A muffled voice cried from above her.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. She didn't recognize the voice, but she did realize the greedy undertones in it. They weren't here to help her; they were there to steal from her supposed "dead body".

"Well help me pull it out, you idiot." The other growled.

The celestial mage tried to support her weak body inside the tumbling contraption she was trapped in. Lucy felt as if she was inside a washer machine and couldn't get a grip on anything; instead objects were pelting her in the most annoying places—namely her _face_.

Irritated but quickly planning her escape (she didn't know if these men were psychos) Lucy closed her eyes and made her breathing shallow as the men halted in moving her and the top of her coffin was unlatched.

XxX

_"Natsu…" _

The dragon slayer bolted upright in his hammock and fell to the ground as he got tangled up in it. He rubbed his eyes blearily and sat up on his cold floor.

He frowned. Natsu could have sworn Lucy had called out to him, but he guessed that it could have just been left over thoughts from a wistful dream.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, he rose to his feet and shuffled to the kitchen to get something to drink. Leaning against his counter, Natsu sipped his drink and looked at the blackness outside, his mind traveling back to the guild he had just left a couple of hours before.

After explaining himself, a weight seemed to have been lifted from his shoulders; instead of trying to carry the burden of Lucy's death by himself, speaking to the others and getting their points of view helped disperse and lessen the grief, though he would never forget that day.

Every night when he closed his eyes, he would see her smiling faintly up at him after he kissed her for the first and last time. When he went to her house to get his daily dosage of her presence and scent (which was almost completely faded now) he would occasionally see her out of the peripherals of his eyes or hear her voice.

He refused to go into her room.

He kept the rest of her home clean and tried to leave things as they had been before the mission, but that room was not to be touched by anyone. He wondered what he would do when her rent was up. Makarov had already forbid him from paying the rent to keep it, saying that it would just make his guilt last longer for no good reason.

At first Natsu thought he was going insane, but when he spoke to the others about it that night, they said that they too would think they heard her voice or see a girl blonde hair, only to realize that it was not their Lucy.

Wishful thinking, Mira had called it.

Natsu placed his cup in the sink and sat down on his hammock and was about to lay down to sleep, but there was a feeling in his gut that something was wrong. He didn't know with what, or why, but the nagging feeling was there.

Scrunching his eyebrows together irritably, he crossed his arms and leaned back into his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Whatever it was, it could wait until morning.

XxX

"Wow, for a dead person, she looks very…fleshy. Shouldn't she have decayed slightly at least?"

Someone poked her in the cheek and she heard a dull smack, indicating that whoevers hand had touched her was knocked away.

"They probably put some kind of spell on her. She's a wizard after all! Now, stop dallying around; we've got to move her and take what we can that's valuable."

He paused and the other man chuckled. "Her clothes look valuable as well, should we take those?"

Lucy could imagine the sly grin creeping over the other man's face as he affirmed that they would indeed be taking her clothes.

_Like hell I'm just going to lay here as they strip me naked!_ Lucy thought frantically, beginning to carry out her plan.

Lucy kept her breathing even, but began to position herself where she believed she could lash out at the men's faces so she could run away. She could hear rustling around her indicating that one of them wasn't paying attention to the other whose hands were beginning to pull at the first layer of fabric around her waist but was rummaging around in her things in the coffin.

Just as her hand was about to move in the direction of the man, the other grunted irritably. "Will you move the body out of here? I need to get to this stuff as quickly as possible and this dead weight isn't helping me any."

The blonde girl struggled to keep her breathing even as she was hauled over the shoulder of one of the men and mentally grinned. This was perfect! She could easily reach up and…

_Thump!_

__ Lucy's back collided with the ground harshly as her mugger threw her down and she tried to control her panic. Apparently, her time spent in her tomb wasn't a short amount of time. She realized for the first time how skinny and exhausted her body was. The dress she wore hung incredibly loose on her tiny frame and she could barely move.

At all.

Lucy mentally screamed in frustration as the man kneeled next to her 'dead' body and began tearing at her clothes once again. When he moved to her corset, her heart beat faster. All that was between her bare body and this strange man was a thin under layer black skirt and undershirt, covered by her corset.

_Pop._

The man sliced off the first wire holding the front of the corset together and Lucy's resolve was steeled. She would get out of this.

Lucy focused all of her waning energy on moving her body. Quickly, she slid her eyes open to scan her surroundings before moving. She could see the night sky and waited a few heartbeats for her eyes to adjust. Blinking as minutely as possible, Lucy could make out the outline and face of the man trying to jerk her corset off with a hungry look in his eyes.

Swallowing, Lucy moved fast.

Her knee struck the man in the side of her head with all of her force and Lucy shakily scrambled to her feet. The other man whipped around and his eyes grew wide as he took in his partner sprawled on the ground holding his head and then slid to the now standing supposed dead girl.

Lucy turned on her heel and tried to force her wobbly knees and legs to propel her forward as quickly as possible, but she knew she was much too slow.

A body was flung into her back, crushing her into the ground and making her unnourished body to scream in pain. Lucy let out a huff of air and panted. Her body was not used to the physical exertion she was putting it through at the moment and she could feel her mind trying to go back to sleep, but she couldn't allow herself to pass out _now_, with this man on top of her!

"Just what the hell are you, pretty girl?" He chuckled as he shallowly panted on top of her. Lucy weakly struggled against the grass she was being held in and tried to get out from under him, but that just made him push down on her even harder.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me where all your money is." The man growled, flipping her over and brandishing his knife as he smiled, "Or I'll just have to…" He trailed off, cleanly slicing through the front of her corset and leaving a shallow cut on her skin through her thin shirt, "Take it from you." He finished, smiling a twisted smile as he yanked off her corset and tossed it aside.

Lucy's heart hammered against her ribcage and she tried to scream once again, but the man just shoved a hand over her mouth and began planting wet and disgusting kisses on her throat as he slowly trailed down.

Tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes. She had just _died_! And now she was waking up to some asshole assaulting her?

The same pink hair invaded her mind's eye once again. _Natsu. Where is Natsu? _She thought despairingly.

Lucy narrowed her eyes as the man's other hand began to wander, causing a new flush of anger to overcome her and she opened her mouth, biting as hard as she could into the man's palm and drawing blood.

The man howled in pain as he moved to cradle his palm, giving her enough time to slide her body away from him and begin to stand. However, the man grabbed her foot, yanking him towards her but she wouldn't lose her chance this time. Taking a deep breath, she yelled the one name that came to mind.

"NATSU!"

The man growled and slapped her hard across the face, whipping her face into the ground and causing her to smack her head. He grabbed her by the arm and lifted her up to a standing position, bruising wherever he touched and striking her where he could before throwing her down and spitting on her body.

Lucy heard the sound of an enraged voice shouting curses and the distinct sound of flesh colliding with flesh, but she didn't really care at that point. Her dress was in rags around her, her body was beaten and exhausted as it lay curled on the ground and all she wanted was to curl up and sleep.

Fire burst into her bleary peripheral vision and Lucy squinted in an attempt to see who it was. Her ears were stuffy and she felt as if she was underwater, but she could hear the anger coming from a man's voice that was not her attacker.

Lucy closed her eyes in exhaustion and the fight faded into the background. After drifting in and out of consciousness for a couple of heartbeats, there was silence around her. Someone brushed a piece of her hair away from her face gently and cupped her cheek as they chanted her name quietly. Lucy looked through the fog of her mind and saw a pink blob in front of her.

Suddenly, the slight chill she felt from being on the ground was gone as she was cradled to his chest and hefted into his arms. The blonde girl could hear the questions and demands people were directing at her savior, but he either ignored or threatened them to get them out of his way.

Lucy was pressed against his chest and could hear his quiet reassurances reverberate into her ear when they got away from the crowd and closed her eyes in content.

"Natsu." She whispered, and darkness overtook her.

XxX

_Bang! Bang! Bang! _

Erza's eyes snapped open to the sound of someone beating at her door and she rubbed her eyes blearily as she sat up and requipped into her usual armor.

Stretching, she hauled her legs over the side of her bed and popped her neck as she stood, wrenching open the door a little irritably. Gray stood there, wide eyed with a fist raised to knock once again when Erza opened the door with a questioning look in her sleepy eyes.

For a second, the two just looked at each other, Gray opening and closing his mouth like a dying fish and Erza blearily blinking at him until the blue haired boy dropped his raised hand, "Erza…"

Gray stopped speaking and Erza raised an eyebrow in silent question as she leaned against the doorframe until the red headed woman got impatient with the boy's silence and ground her teeth together in frustration. If he was trying to be funny by interrupting her sleep…

Shaking her fist at the blue haired boy threateningly, Erza stepped closer, "I swear, if this is some kind of prank Gray, I'll PUNCH YOU SO HARD—"

"LUCY IS ALIVE!"

XxX

Gray sat sulking in the waiting room of the hospital wing in Fairy Tail nursing his black eye while Erza continued arguing with the nurse about being unable to visit Lucy.

"We are her teammates, we have full rights—!" Erza began, bristling in anger.

"I'm sorry, but you don't. We've never had this sort of thing happen…we're waiting for Makarov and Wendy to arrive before we let anyone see her…."

The nurse's voice faded into the background and Gray removed the ice pack he held to his right eye and let the hand clutching the ice fall to his knee. As if hearing a bell only she could hear, Erza whirled around in the middle of berating the young woman to glare at the ice mage who quickly smacked the ice pack back into place.

The nurse used this opportunity to try and inch away, but to no avail. Gray scoffed quietly to himself; Erza could probably smell her fear.

Sweeping his eyes around the room, Gray noticed the pink haired blob that seemed to never stop moving around the small waiting room they were being held in. Multiple nurses and doctors had tried to get them to go home and wait for them to call them back to see her, but Lucy's team refused to budge.

After Gray had given Erza the news about Lucy, the fierce warrior mage had automatically assumed that she was playing some kind of sick joke on her. The flustered woman clocked him in the eye in response to the boys rushed words, armored fist and all. Once Gray picked himself up from the dirt in front of her home, he stomped back to the enraged requip mage and argued until she consented to follow him to the hospital where they currently resided.

"Natsu. Sit _down_!" Erza commanded, pointing to a chair the dragon slayer hovered around. The dazed boy robotically followed the orders thrust at him, but as soon as the red haired warrior turned her back he was back to pacing around.

Erza yelled over her shoulder once again, but the boy ignored her and continued to march around causing the warrior woman to bristle in irritation. Arms tense at her sides, she stomped over to the boy and began forcibly dragging him to a chair, disregarding his flailing arms and shouts of ire in his attempts at freedom.

The nurse used this opportunity to flee back behind the safety of her desk, watching Erza berate the shouting boy. Gray flopped his head over the back of the chair he sat on to stare at the ceiling as he held the compress to his face and sighed in frustration and exhaustion.

This was going to be a long day.

XxX

She awoke to blaring hospital lights shining in her sensitive eyes, causing her to squeeze them shut once more in agitation.

Lucy could feel the aches in her body, but was no longer exhausted or in any kind of incredible pain as she had been when she first opened her eyes. Remembering with a jolt that she had just been _dead_, curiosity piqued at the corners of her consciousness, willing her to open her eyes and get answers.

Cracking open one brown eye discreetly, Lucy let her eyes glance around the room. For all she knew, that sick bastard had captured her and locked her up in some kind of torture chamber. Her body didn't seem to be in any restraints as far as she could tell, but when she tried to move her left arm, something kept it down.

Something heavy, warm and oddly familiar.

Lucy peeked through both eyelashes and her eyes rested on a familiar head full of pink with his cheek pressed against the back of their linked hands. His mouth was slightly open in his deep slumber and she smiled faintly as strange relief coursed through her with the knowledge that Natsu was there.

Her smile quickly turned to a frown when she took a closer look at the boy sleeping next to her. Even in sleep, she could see the dark circles under his eyes and the sadness etched into his face. His body seemed to be the same, but the knotted muscles and bruises indicated that he wasn't treating his body the way he should. Her eyes drifted to his hands, noting the swollen knuckles there.

Lucy carefully ran her free hand through his shaggy locks and quietly tried to calculate how long she had been…unconscious.

Was that even what she should be calling it?

"He's not even supposed to be back here, but he snuck in anyway."

The blonde girl's eyes snapped up to see a blue haired girl rounding the corner of the curtain surrounding the bed with a small apologetic smile as she took in Lucy's shocked expression.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you," She began; her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as Lucy brought a finger to her lips and gestured to Natsu. After a second of pause, understanding dawned over her features and she smiled sweetly. Giving Lucy a thumbs up, the girl quietly opened the curtain surrounding her bed the rest of the way seeing as how Lucy had the entire room to herself and opened the window to let the moonlight shine through.

On her way out, the blue haired girl flicked the lights off and glanced over her shoulder to get one last look at her dear friends before leaving. Her heart clenched in joy at the sight of Lucy tenderly massaging the pink haired dragon slayer's hair as she gazed out the window in thought; a blissful smile on Natsu's lips.

Smiling to herself, Wendy closed the door quietly behind her and went to join Erza, Gray and the rest of the Fairy Tail guild in hunting down the rest of the men who had a hand in digging up their Lucy. Wendy's face melted into a twisted and menacing smile.

There would be hell to pay. (1)

XxX

Shortly after the door clicked shut behind the well-loved medic, Natsu stirred and blinked in confusion before realizing where he was. Arching his neck up without removing his cheek from her warm skin, Natsu warily looked up to the girl he'd missed so much.

Lucy hadn't noticed his awakened form and so he took the opportunity to marvel at her beauty. Blinking the sleep sluggishly out of his eyes, his blurred vision of her finally came into focus. Her hair was pulled back loosely into a braid and the silhouette of her face was outlined in the moonlight shining in from the window, giving her pale skin an angelic glow.

Natsu's eyes trailed away from her face as she stared out the window and took in the shirt he had demanded Gray bring from the dragon slayer's house. The black shirt's collar was slightly stretched out from all the abuse Natsu put it through, but the elongated neck space was appreciated and gave the pink haired teenager ample view of the top of her chest as it steadily rose and fell.

The sight of her breathing was almost enough to send the dragon slayer into a fit of happiness, but he did not want to shatter her thoughts or this peaceful moment between them.

_Am I dreaming?_ He wondered. Natsu's heart gave a painful clench at the thought, but he froze when he saw Lucy's head snap in his direction.

Apparently, the words meant to be kept in his mind had come out of his mouth without his knowledge and had gained her attention. Lucy's wide brown eyes followed his movements as Natsu sat up from lying on her hand and instead perched on the edge of the bed carefully. The dragon slayer kept his hand intertwined with hers in his lap, but his eyes refused to meet hers and instead focused on the floor in front of him.

Silence had never been so deafening to Natsu in all of his eighteen years of living. Was she mad at him for not being there when she needed him most? Natsu would hold no grudges against her if that was the case. He was a miserable excuse for a human being. Any punishment that she deemed necessary, he would follow. If it was for him to never see or speak to her again, he would leave and become mute, because if he couldn't talk to his Lucy, then what was the point in speaking at all?

Maybe she was disappointed. Disappointed and disgusted. His hand clenched in hers tightly. Why was he even there with her? Maybe he was being insensitive by crowding her so early; after all, her death was entirely his fault, wasn't it?

"Natsu." Lucy croaked sternly. When the boy flinched but did not turn around, the blonde girl cleared her throat and repeated herself louder and more clearly.

Stiffly, Natsu turned at the sound of her voice, his haunted eyes searching her own and finding nothing but intense confusion.

Lucy searched the boy's face in front of her thoroughly, her blonde eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as she opened and closed her mouth in an attempt to find a question she wanted answered first.

"Natsu...I..." She began, her eyes flickering past him and widening as a haze seemed to settle over her.

"Who are you?"

**X**

**x**

**X**

** (1) Thank you to Where's the mayo for this idea : ) **

**...my updates will get slower after this one! But since I am an attention whore and need reviews to make me all warm and fuzzy on the inside, I decided to post this today. **

**Don't worry guys, this story WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. I just wanted to make that clear, but I'm not giving away anything else! **

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR LOVELY REVIEWS, PLEASE KEEP WRITING THEM. THEY ENCOURAGE ME TO WRITE MORE FOR YOU GUYS!**

…**..REVIEW AND ALL SHALL BE ANSWERED IN TIME!**


	5. Chapter 5: Gone Gone Gone

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Fairy Tail or any Phillip Phillips songs. Or Phillip Phillips himself, sadly *sigh***

**Chapter 5:**** Gone Gone Gone **

****It would mean a lot to me if you guys would read the Authors Note at the bottom!****

_You're my back bone,_

_You're my cornerstone_

_You're my crutch when my legs stop moving_

_You're my head start,_

_You're my rugged heart_

_You're the pulse that I've always needed_

_Like a drum, baby, don't stop beating…_

_Like a drum my heart never stops beating_

_For you_

"Who are you?"

Natsu's eyes widened in shock and horror as his mouth slumped open in disbelief. He searched Lucy's eyes for any hint of the warm and loving girl that was constantly there before, but saw no trace of her now. His eyes narrowed; something was wrong with her eyes.

Lucy's thoughts were fogged and it was as if she was in a trance and trying to wade through wet concrete. Just a moment before, she and Natsu were the only ones in her room and now there approached another figure who stood behind the unsuspecting dragon slayer.

The roof above her was replaced by a sky filled with stars and constellations that the celestial wizard had long become accustomed to and the floor beneath her shook with tremors. Lucy frowned.

_My feet are on the floor? But I was just sitting on the bed…_

Turning her head to the bed beside her, Lucy gasped in shock and held out her hands to inspect them. Her body was indeed still sitting on the bed being shaken by a flustered Natsu with a blank stare adorning her face, but Lucy herself was in control of the transparent body standing next to the commotion.

"Lucy Heartfilia."

Said girl whipped her head in the direction of the booming voice and quickly bowed when she caught sight of who was before her.

"Celestial Spirit King." Lucy said breathlessly, trying not to be unnerved that what she said was echoed by her other self; Natsu staring wide-eyed at her in the hospital bed. "Not to sound, er, rude," she whispered, "but why are you here?"

The imposing man, sparing no pleasantries, replied with a grave tone, "Lucy Heartfilia. It has become my knowledge that you have recently had a bought with death." The blonde girl flinched in response, but made no attempt to speak.

Taking a breath, the king continued, "This would not be any of my concern if your spirits had not involved themselves."

Lucy's head snapped up as she stared straight into his eyes, "What happened to them?" she hissed fiercely. If something had happened to them and he was somehow a contributing factor, Spirit King or not, she would kick his Celestial _ass_.

"Do not accuse me, Celestial Mage, of harming any of my own spirits. They are as much my family as yours." He boomed, making Lucy retreat, but only slightly. She would still protect her spirits against _anyone_ and _anything_ that threatened them.

"Your spirits are in danger. When you were dying, your spirits tried to save you, though they knew the penalty they would face. Your ten gold keys were thereby banished from ever returning to the celestial realm."

"But they'll die!" Lucy shouted, taking a step towards the imposing spirit and fisting her hands at her sides. "It's not their fault—!"

"But," He interrupted her, holding a hand out to silence the fuming girl, "Your case is not one I have ever beheld. You are alive." He said, giving a pointed look to her human body lying on the bed. After gaining no response from maniacally waving a hand in the face of the girl on the bed, Natsu scurried literally _through_ the King to dart to the door yelling for Mira's help.

"Therefore, I have decided that your keys have suffered long enough in your human realm. They are allowed to return. However, there is a problem that I face with you and your connection to your spirits that is unheard of even to me."

Lucy raised her eyebrows in silent question, still reeling from the fact that her keys had been stuck in the human world because of her carelessness. "How long have they been here?" She asked quietly.

"Six long months." He replied, ignoring her gasp of horror, "They are fading, Celestial Mage. And if you do not get to them quickly, so will you."

XxX

Natsu sped through the empty halls of the guild frantically and kicked down any closed doors he came into contact with that blocked his path. Hands aflame, he barged into the main hall of the guild and cried out in frustration; the _entire guild_ seemed to be empty!

"Where is everyone?!" He yelled, pulling at his hair in frustration and spinning in a small circle to scan the area once again.

Growling quietly to himself, Natsu flipped though the ideas forming in his mind. Should he go try and find the others? He knew they were out on a witch hunt for the men that had done harm to Lucy. He would be there with them if he wasn't so concerned about someone other than himself watching over her.

The pink haired man bristled in anger as he remembered what had occurred the night before.

Natsu had been determined to sleep that night, but the feeling of dread and anger pooling in his stomach just would not leave him so he decided to get some fresh air. When he stepped out of his small home and began slowly walking down the deserted street, Natsu's heart began beating faster.

Putting a hand over his chest in worry, he swallowed and picked up his pace to follow where his gut was telling him to go. His hand clanked against something dangling from his neck, causing him to look down.

The ring he and Lucy shared burned red-hot against his skin and Natsu nearly choked on his own spit in shock. Clutching the ring in his hand, the dragon slayer practically sprinted to her grave with his heart clenching painfully in his chest the entire time.

When he found her, his vision had gone red in rage.

Natsu ripped his gaze away from her curled form on the ground and focused on the lecherous man in front of him. Quickly darting in front of him to block his escape, Natsu slammed a flamed fist into the civilian's face, launching him into the ground with such force that he left a crater in his wake. Leaping on top of the man as he lay on his back, Natsu struck his fist into the man's face over and over again until his whimpering was quieted and the only sound in the still night was the sound of flesh connecting with flesh.

The man's face was bruised beyond repair and a stream of crimson blood flowed from his nose and mouth as Natsu leaned back to inspect his handiwork. The dragon slayer's knuckles were beginning to swell and the man's disgusting blood was splattered on Natsu's face, but the pink haired man couldn't care any less. Natsu grabbed the man by the collar and brought his face close.

"Listen to me, you pathetic lecherous excuse for a human being," He growled menacingly, "If you ever, _ever_ come near her again, I will _kill you." _He hissed; murderous intent clear in his eyes. Shaking the man jerkily when the idiot began to laugh through his blood Natsu snarled, "Did you hear me?"

The man did not reply, but Lucy gave a small pained whimper next to them and Natsu immediately turned his attention to her. The dragon slayer hissed in pain as the slimeball kicked him between the legs and threw a handful of dirt and sand into his eyes.

Natsu had furiously rubbed his eyes and blinked away the tears to try and see where the man had gone, but it wouldn't have mattered to him anyway. Lucy was there and she was calling out for him. Abandoning any other thoughts, Natsu turned to her beaten and frail body and took her in his arms; trying to ignore how tiny and light she was.

Guilt crept back into his mind as he propped himself against the wall nearest to him in the guild and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. Once again, he had arrived too late. Once again Lucy was hurt and there was nothing he could do about it. Once again all of his so-called strength did nothing to protect the one he loved.

Once again, he was useless to her.

And then that _bastard_ had tried to take advantage of her…

Natsu's eyes flicked open in rage as his fingernails dug into his palms, causing them to bleed and punched the wall next to him. The impact sent a ripple of pain through his arm, but Natsu ignored it and continued to stand there, fist on the wall and head hanging in shame when he heard a gasp from his left.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried, rushing to his side.

His head snapped up at the sound of her voice and confusion clouded his remorseful face. The celestial mage marched over to him, her body fragile in his large shirt that seemed to swallow her tiny frame and her expression fierce.

"What the hell are you doing, hurting yourself like that?" She demanded, reaching out and pulling his hand away from the wall. Natsu watched her in amazement as she grumbled to herself while inspecting his bloodied hand and knuckles.

"What happened to you up there, Luce? You just…" He pointed his index and middle finger to his own eyes with his free hand, "…blanked out!"

Lucy didn't answer and instead tugged on the sputtering boy's wrist, leading him towards the spare med kit she knew Mira kept underneath the bar. Natsu let himself be led and stayed quiet; relishing the feel of her warm and very much alive hand on his wrist.

Natsu's eyes continuously trailed back to the girl wearing his overly large shirt in front of him and his heart stuttered in nervousness and excitement. The dragon slayer's clothing was so long and large on her, he could barely see the dark green cotton shorts she wore peeking out from underneath. Lucy's braid swished lightly against her back, entrancing the boy behind her and practically daring him to reach out and touch it.

Natsu was jerked out of his thoughts when Lucy suddenly turned behind the bar and let go of his wrist. He frowned at the lack of contact and continued to follow her retreating form. Lucy reached below the bar and with a triumphant cry pulled out the small medical box, waving it around in victory.

"Come here and let me see the damage." She said, nimbly hopping up to perch on the counter and beginning to rummage through the case next to her.

Natsu mindlessly shuffled over to where she directed him to go and stayed still as she took his hand in hers. The dragon slayer's heart beat fast at their proximity and the feel of her soft skin against his. The blond girl was completely ignorant of the pink haired man's discomfort and chalked his rapid breathing up to the burn of the antiseptic she smoothed on the inflamed and bloody skin.

Lucy wrapped his knuckles gently and checked his head for any similar injuries from the fight she suspected he got in with the man who attacked her. Clicking her tongue as she brushed her fingertips along his hairline, she found a shallow cut still bleeding and swiped at it with another wipe. Lucy squinted and brought her face closer to make sure he didn't have any other cuts after fixing the last one when she realized the boy in front of her was stiff and slightly pale.

Lucy leaned back slightly and flicked her wide brown eyes up to him in confusion, "Natsu?"

The pink haired man stared into her eyes fiercely but his coloring did not look any better than it had before she spoke, "You were dead, Lucy." His stare wavered and the sadness in his voice made his words quiver.

The girl opened and closed her mouth to respond, but no noise came out. She had no idea what was going on either!

"You were," he paused and swallowed to try and keep his emotions in check, "cold and lifeless. For six months you disappeared out of my life and now you're here—" His voice cracked and he cleared his throat, glancing at the ground and looking back up to her repeatedly.

Natsu steadied his gaze, propping his hands on either side of her hips on the bar she sat on and looked up at her, his eyes pleading and confused. "How?"

"I don't know." She responded quietly, dropping her head so as not to see his penetrating gaze. "I just remember…dying…and then…nothing. I don't know!" She cried, holding her head in her hands and closing her eyes in frustration.

Her spirits were in danger and she didn't know why, she was alive and she didn't know why and the freakin' _Spirit King_ was just popping up in her room and she didn't know _why_.

Lucy's questions screamed in her head in a constant loop and just when she thought her head would explode from all the rambling, her chin was lifted to meet the gentle eyes of the dragon slayer in front of her.

"Luce," Natsu said quietly, waiting until her guilty gaze met his to continue, "I'm sorry. I know you don't know any more than I do, but I'm just so glad you're back."

The bare sincerity of his statement made Lucy's heart lurch painfully against her ribs as she stared into the dragon slayer's eyes. She realized with ferocious speed how much she had missed him during their parting.

Lucy silently brought her hands up to trace the lines of the boy's face in front of her and let her eyes drink in every part of him she could see. Her fingertips brushed across his cheeks and Natsu closed his eyes, sighing happily at the contact. The Celestial Mage smiled slightly and glided the pads of her fingers up to gently smooth his eyelids before one hand travelled down to softly trace his lips while the other brushed down his neck and settled on his shoulder.

The girl's breath caught in her throat when Natsu's eyes suddenly flicked open and she saw the uncontrolled desire looming in his eyes.

Natsu couldn't bear it any longer. Here she was, the girl he loved back form the dead right in front of him, wearing his clothes and staring at him with such trust and love and all he could do was stand there and hope to not shatter the moment they shared.

But caution was thrown to the wind when she slid the hand on his face around his neck to meet the other that was previously on his shoulder. Letting his body take over, Natsu leaned fully into the girl sitting in front of him and pulled on her waist to drag her closer, covering her mouth with his.

Lucy felt exhilarated at the first gentle touch of his lips and relished in the sweetness of the kiss which was so unlike the last one they shared on the brink of her death. As if remembering the same thing as she, Natsu's hold on her grew tighter and she was sure that her lips would bruise from the pressure they were under, but she didn't care.

The dragon slayer's hands wandered from her waist to her thighs and grazed over the delicate skin there, making Lucy shudder slightly and Natsu to smile against her lips in response. Cupping his hands under her knees and feeling more confident, the pink haired boy quickly swiped his tongue across her lips, earning a shocked gasp to come from Lucy's mouth.

Natsu took this opportunity to deepen the kiss even further and slip his tongue into her mouth fully and after sitting shocked for a few heartbeats, Lucy fought back with her own against his.

Wrapping her arms around his neck even tighter, Lucy let her hands wander into his long locks and gently tugged on the bubblegum strands, eliciting the response she wanted when he growled against her smiling lips. The celestial mage felt a tug at her own hair as the band holding her blonde strands was taken off by the dragon slayer and his mouth left hers.

Frowning slightly, she opened her puffy mouth to ask him what was wrong when she suddenly felt his hand hold one side of her neck as his mouth gently began trailing butterfly kisses down the other. Lucy wrapped her lean legs around the Natsu's waist, gaining an appreciative noise from the boy and buried her face in his hair as he continued to place lingering kisses over her neck and collar bone.

Getting impatient after a while, Lucy tugged on the boy's hair with a small whining noise and met his playful glittering eyes for a split second before he captured her lips once again.

Natsu's hand ran through her hair while the other supported himself on the counter but when Lucy's hands began tugging on the hem of his shirt, he thought he would drop her and fall face first with a nosebleed onto the counter top.

Not allowing his racing heart to show how nervous he was on the outside, Natsu shrugged out of the shirt Lucy pulled over his head. They paused and the two stood staring at each other, each taking in the other. Both of their breathing was hard and labored and their cheeks were flushed and Natsu brushed his hand against her cheek gently.

Lucy took it and pressed a kiss into the palm of his hand, never breaking eye contact with him the entire time. Natsu placed a hand on either side of her face and slowly pressed his lips against hers once again much less urgently than before and the blonde took this time to let her hands wander his bare and muscular chest.

All of the scars that resided there from missions she had missed and those that she had been there for, the muscles that showed his strength and will to become the best were all under her fingertips. But that wasn't what made Natsu _her_ Natsu. Lucy glided her hand over to his speeding heart and could feel the heat radiating off of him press into her palm as he breathed raggedly against her.

What made Natsu who he was, she decided, was his fierce desire to love and care for others. Her heart stuttered at the realization that she was the one that topped that list for him and was deeply touched by what that meant for the both of them.

They finally had someone.

"Oh, not on the bar I drink at please."

Both teens stiffened and Natsu's lips left hers slowly. Lucy turned, cheeks burning red to see a familiar brunette looking at them in disinterest with a keg raised to her lips.

"Don't mind me," Cana said breezily, smirking as she lowered her drink. "I just came to check up on the patient, but I see you are in very…_capable_ hands."

Mortified, Lucy just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear forever as she turned back to the pink haired boy who still seemed to be in a happy haze as he grinned and pulled his shirt back on. Shaking his head slightly, Natsu nodded once to himself and smiled at the blonde in front of him.

"C'mon Luce, you need your rest." She nodded and gently scooted so her feet touched the floor.

"Yeah, you two have fuun!" Cana sang from behind them, both teenagers studiously ignoring her.

Her body still protested at the movement, but after a few days of eating and drinking like a normal person, she was sure she'd be fine. Lucy began wobbly making her way to the stairs leading up to the hospital rooms when the floor slowly began to tilt.

"Plus, now that Cana's here I can go and help in the search for those bastards." He growled, dark clouds practically hanging over his head in his murderous mood.

He turned his head when he saw that Lucy was no longer right behind him and got a glimpse of her pale for. Propping herself against the wall with one hand and covering her eyes with the other, the celestial wizard took deep breaths to keep from passing out.

"Lucy!"

Natsu quickly rushed to her side and wrapped a hand around her waist while the other reached for her wrist, which he placed around his neck.

Lucy made no protest as the pink haired boy lifted her gently against his chest and carried her up the stairs and into her room. Natsu nudged the door open with his foot and placed her down so she could get under the covers at her leisure.

The celestial mage closed her eyes and snuggled back into the pillows under the watchful eyes of her pink haired dragon slayer. When she finally got comfortable, she cracked her eyes open and frowned when she met the troubled eyes of the boy in front of her.

"What's the matter, Natsu?" She whispered, tucking her hand under her pillow to prop herself up slightly.

The boy reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, letting his hand rest on her cheek. "I just remembered. What happened earlier, Luce? You looked at me and asked me who I was. I was worried you'd…forgotten me."

"Oh!" Lucy shot straight up, worry etched on her face, taking Natsu's hand and clasping it in one of hers. He'd never admit it out loud, but her grip was _bruising_. "I never forgot you Natsu…it was just…someone was here."

One pink eyebrow shot up, "I didn't see anyone."

Lucy glared at him in annoyance. "Because you're not a Celestial Wizard. Anyway, I need my keys. Where are they?"

Natsu's mouth opened and closed once and a furrow formed between his eyes. "Well…when I thought you were dead, I gave them to Makarov and he spread…them…out…" He faded out as the pressure on his hand increased and the girl in front of him glared a hole into the side of his head.

"…you gave away my keys."

He nodded.

"My celestial spirits are scattered everywhere and anywhere."

Another nod.

Lucy grit her teeth together in frustration. This could not be happening. She needed her spirits now more than ever! They were trapped in the human world and fading quickly. Lucy's stomach dropped_._

_I'll be fading as well if we don't find them soon, but Mr. oh-so-powerful-celestial-king didn't mention why now did he? _

"Lucy?"

Where in the world would she start? She would have to ask Makarov if he knew where they were, but what if he forgot? Would they have new masters if they were free to roam?

"Luce."

The girl tried not to panic as the thoughts tumbled around in her head. If they did have new celestial mage owners, how would she get them back? Obviously, they wouldn't just hand her the gold keys back after hearing her sob story and then go on their merry way.

"LUCY."

Natsu's booming voice brought her back from her troubled thoughts bouncing around in her head almost as hard as he was shaking her shoulders. Lucy frowned and brought her gaze back up to meet his.

The boy sighed and dropped his head down to rest on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I thought you were gone." He mumbled against her exposed skin, "We'll get them back. I promise."

Natsu pressed his lips against her shoulder gently and leaned back to smile at her. She sighed quietly and allowed him to press her back into the bed once again. "But right now, you need to rest up!" He continued, turning and beginning to walk towards the door. He wasn't kidding earlier. He wanted to find whoever it was that did this to her and tear them limb from limb.

And maybe burn the pieces, too.

"Natsu?"

He paused in the doorway and turned his head to peer at her over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Promise you won't go after those men. I don't want you to get hurt."

The dragon slayer turned away and fisted his hands at is sides. "I won't get hurt, Luce. I promise."

Natsu closed the door behind him and nodded to Cana on the way out. Throwing the doors open and searching the sky for his blue haired feline companion, Natsu inwardly grimaced. He didn't plan on getting hurt; he would keep that promise to her.

But those men could kiss the skin on their bones goodbye.

**X**

**x**

**X**

**I wasn't going to post this chapter tonight so I could take my time in editing and make it even better, but I felt that I had to, in order to clear some things up.**

** First, I had no intentions of ever giving Lucy amnesia. I know that's what most of you thought, hence the reviews and PMs I received in response. BUT that was my hook. I had to make you guys think that something bad happened so you would come back and read the next chapter. Sorry, but my story is not the Brady Bunch or Scooby Doo, so there will be some conflict that isn't tied up in a nice little bow at the end of every chapter (or episode. You get what I'm saying). **

** Secondly, some of the reviews I got made me want to end the story with this chapter and be done with it. However, I decided that it wouldn't be fair to those of you who leave me positive comments. Don't get me wrong, constructive criticism is WELCOME, but just bashing the story is definitely not okay. If you want to do that, send me a PM so I can respond in the correct manner. **

** ANYWAY.**

** As you can see, I have a different song at the beginning of the chapter, and I would really like it if you guys told me what song this fanfic reminds you of, and I'll see if I can use it and put your name beside it! **

** THANK YOU AGAIN TO ALL MY LOVELY REVIEWERS, I LOVE YOU ALL. **

** Review and tell me what you thought of this chapter! **


	6. Chapter 6: Problems in Paradise

**Disclaimer****: I don't own Fairy Tail or Greenday!**

**Chapter 6: Problems in Paradise **

_This sudden fear has left me trembling  
Cause now it seems that I am out here on my own  
And I'm feeling so alone_

"I spy something…brown."

"The floor?"

"Yep."

"Okay, I spy something…blue."

"That thing over there?"

"No."

"My top?"

"Yeah."

Cana and Lucy sat opposite each other on one of the benches in the guild, staring with glazed eyes around the empty hall and trying not to die of boredom. Their conversation earlier ended after Lucy explained to Cana how her last mission went and the brunette detailed to her what was going on in the guild at the moment.

"I spy…"

And now they were reduced to a game Lucy associated with two year olds learning colors for the first time.

"…something…"

Lucy propped her chin in her hand and barely resisted the urge to bang her head against the table as she watched the skin between the drunkard's eyebrows scrunch together with the difficulty of her task to pick another color. When Natsu had left and Lucy changed into her own pair of denim shorts and tank top, the blonde came down the stairs and hadn't been allowed to leave since.

Cana had been instructed that the girl was not to leave her sight until the pink haired boy returned (with those assholes heads on a platter, Cana mentally prayed) and watched over her instead.

Needless to say, their "girl time" wasn't astonishingly exciting.

"…blonde."

"My hair." Lucy deadpanned.

"Damnit!" Cana swore, slamming her fist on the table and rattling the plate Lucy had eaten off of earlier. "How are you so good at this?!"

The celestial wizard rolled her eyes at the older woman's antics, "You already did that one earlier."

The brunette's mouth formed a small 'o' and Lucy sighed and let her head smack onto the wooden surface in front of her.

"Well, I haven't had this much fun since I stabbed a pencil in my eye."

Cana huffed and crossed her arms, "Then you think of something to do that doesn't involve movement or very much thinking because I'm tired and it's almost 3 o'clock in the morning, so nothing stupid like sparring for money or a mission or anything."

Lucy lifted her head and gave the bottom of her mug a sarcastic look, "Well there goes my plan of world domination."

The brunette let out a very unladylike snort and downed another mug of her alcohol. Lucy let her head fall back against the table as she mumbled about just wanting to go to sleep and crazy warden female wizards. The guild was silent and the blonde was just beginning to doze into a light sleep when—

"I know!"

Lucy's eyes snapped open and she swore she got whiplash from jerking her head up so quickly from the table it rested on. She blearily blinked her tired eyes at the grinning woman in front of her.

"Whadoyouwant?" She slurred sleepily.

The brunette hummed in a way the made Lucy narrow her eyes suspiciously.

"So," Cana began, leaning towards the girl in front of her, "Have you and Natsu…made up, yet?"

The blonde girl blinked owlishly at the grinning woman in front of her as the silence between them stretched while Lucy tried to process her words through the haze that had befallen her mind from lack of sleep. She figured it had something to do with the fact that she'd just downed a ton of food seeing as how she hadn't had any in months as well making her body just want to curl in a corner and hibernate for the next year.

"I…" realizing the intent of the woman's words, Lucy blushed deeply and looked away from the smirking woman in front of her, "I…that's none of your business!"

Cana cackled in front of her. "Damn right it is!" The woman hollered, leaning back and almost falling backwards off the bench she sat on. She waved her arms around frantically to keep herself upright and barely had time to grip the table in front of her to save herself. Huffing a sigh of relief, she looked up and let out a frustrated growl.

Lucy was gone.

XxX

The blonde girl stretched her arms high over the top of her head and breathed in the refreshing air outside with a content sigh. Knitting her fingers together and letting her hands rest on top of her head, Lucy walked the remembered path to her house.

She passed the little stores that were closed for a couple of more hours until the rest of the world woke up and watched her reflection in the windows as she walked by. She realized with a frown that the others were right. Her form was more frail and skinny than it had been before and her hair was longer and reached the middle of her back. Lucy honestly didn't mind her hair being longer, but the fact that she was already panting just from walking a couple of blocks showed just how frail her body had become.

Deciding that she had better not linger around any longer, Lucy continued on to drag herself to her apartments, fantasizing about her very own bed and feeling weaker by the second. _Maybe this wasn't such a bright idea. _She thought as her head began to throb and her body began to shudder. Just as her arms and legs began to feel like lead and the celestial mage thought she could go on no longer, her apartment came into view.

With a burst of newfound energy surging through her veins, she approached her door when she suddenly came to a halt. She had been gone for half a year; why had she not considered the fact that her rent would not be paid? Sighing and hoping that whoever the owner was now had not trashed her belongings just yet, she raised her hand and rapped her knuckles against the door in front of her.

When there was no answer, Lucy frowned. _They must not be home at the moment. _She thought as she made her way to the woman who owned the home's door. After tapping on the older woman's door for a few seconds, she emerged and blinked wearily up at the blond imposing on her sleep.

"What do you need?" She croaked.

"Oh, uh," Lucy began, clearing her throat and shifting her feet uncomfortably under the old woman's scrutiny. Jabbing her finger in the direction of her home, she asked, "Who lives there now? I need to find out where my belongings were put."

The woman's eyes squinted up at her and suddenly widened. "Lucy Heartfilia? But I thought you were dead!" She exclaimed, clasping her hands in front of her torso and then covering her mouth in mortification. Lucy shrugged and tried to look indifferent even as the pain from making such a simple movement wracked her body with pain.

"Pardon me, I didn't mean to say that so brashly." Putting a finger to her chin, she hummed quietly. "I do believe someone's been paying that rent for a while now, but no one has changed the name on my paperwork."

Lucy's eyes widened, "So I'm still the owner? Did they move any of my things? What does this person look like?"

The old woman sighed and leaned against her door frame. "My dear girl, it is much too early in the morning to discuss all of this. If you would like, I can give you the spare key to your home and you can see who it is that has been nesting in your home while you were…away."

Lucy nodded vigorously and the woman in front of her disappeared into the dark room behind her. The blond could hear shuffling and drawers being opened and closed as the woman cursed under her breath about her beauty sleep.

A key was thrust into the Celestial Mage's face and Lucy flinched away from it until the woman shook it at her impatiently. She took it gingerly from her but before she could thank the woman, the door was slammed into her face rudely.

Lucy frowned but decided to not be offended. She knew that if someone knocked at her door at some ungodly hour in the morning, she would have the same attitude. The blond shakily made her way to the door, stumbling on nothing but air and her own feet the entire way there. She grit her teeth together as she worked the key into the doorknob. This wasn't just from being asleep all that time (asleep is how she had decided to see it, instead of dead. How morbid.), it was something else.

The door creaked open with her touch and Lucy warily flicked on the light, expecting to not be able to recognize her apartment any longer. She gasped in shock at the image she was met with.

Her furniture hadn't been moved an inch and the place was _spotless_. Besides the flowers that had previously resided on her counter top being gone (she figured they had wilted and died) _nothing_ had changed. Lucy pounded up the stairs after shutting and locking the door behind her and threw open every door she came in contact with, coming face to face with the same thing she had seen in her kitchen and living room—nothing had changed and everything was clean.

Lucy paused in front of the closed door of her own room. She took a deep breath and turned the knob.

Letting out the breath she had been holding, tears welled into her eyes. It looked exactly how she had left it. A fine coat of dust covered everything and it seemed that no one had stepped foot into her room since that day she left for the mission. Her heart lurched at the gesture that she couldn't decide whether was creepy or touching.

Quickly closing the door to stop the memories of the morning of the last mission from coming to the front of her mind, Lucy bounded down her stairs once again and shuffled to her kitchen to grab something to drink to calm herself down.

Reaching up to grab a glass from the cabinet, Lucy's vision began to blur and she saw three instead of just the one glass she stretched up for. Instead of grabbing the cup like she planned, the blond knocked it over and sent it hurtling down to the hard floor. Lucy stumbled forward to catch it before it could break, but only succeeded in slicing up not only her lower legs but her hands as well as it shattered.

Hissing at the pain and holding up her hands to her face to inspect the damage, Lucy could only see the blurred image of red in her vision. The Celestial Mage fell to her hands and knees, imbedding the shards of shattered glass further into her hands and cutting up her legs even more. Her heart began to lurch painfully in her chest and her body began to feel as if it were on fire.

_What's happening to me?_

Blackness crept into her vision as Lucy slid fully onto the cool tiled floor.

The last thought that passed through her mind made her shudder in horror.

_It was the poison. _

XxX

Natsu was going to kill her.

Or, quite probably, he would skin her and _then_ kill her right alongside the man that dug up Lucy's grave.

Cana panted from searching the entire guild for the blond Celestial Mage as she propped herself on the nearest wall in the place she had begun her search. Just a couple of minutes before, they had been sitting on that very bench having a normal conversation and then poof! Blondie was prancing off to God knows where and Cana was going to be ruthlessly murdered for letting her out her sight.

The brunette groaned and scrubbed her hands over her face.

Damn the little blonde Celestial Mage.

If only she had some way of seeing where little Miss-I-don't-listen-to-what-people-tell-me-to-do had gone…

The answer was so obvious that Cana immediately halted her assault on her face and face palmed. "Of course," she grumbled, sprinting to the closest table and sitting atop it. Crossing her legs and reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her tarot cards. "Hello babies." She crooned at the cards in her hands, shuffling them and laying a few on the table in front of her.

Cana decided to do a Celtic Cross reading instead of Three Fates since she wasn't much concerned with the past, but more the present and future. Spreading out the ten cards she felt were calling out to Lucy, Cana leaned back to inspect her handiwork. What she saw made her freeze in horror.

"Oh boy…" She whispered, quickly spinning on the bench and sprinting for the door. She knew where Lucy was and if she didn't get there fast, a domino effect would occur that would be irreversible for a long time.

Thrusting the guild doors open, the brunette suddenly skidded to a stop.

"Hey Cana!" Natsu called, waving to her with Happy and the others following behind him, "Why are you out here?"

She stuttered and glanced behind her, wishing that she had put the cards away when she had the chance. Detecting her hesitation, Natsu stepped forward hesitantly, "Cana…where's Lucy?"

The brunette could hear the unsaid threat in the undertone of his voice saying she would pay for her losing Lucy in the very near future. It was creepy that he already knew the blonde was gone. Their connection freaked her out.

Cursing the blonde celestial wizard and her inability to be patient, Cana looked up to the sky and sighed for the umpteenth time that morning, "She left. She's at home"

Looking Natsu straight in the eye and ignoring the fury there, she continued, "And I'd hurry if I were you. You may want to bring Wendy as well."

At her last statement, the rage evaporated from the dragon slayer's face, leaving only unmasked worry. Grabbing the shocked blue haired girl's arm, Natsu sped off, both Exceeds following shortly after.

Makarov approached Cana and stood in front of her as the other guild members filed into the hall behind her. "What happened, Cana? What did you see?"

The brunette woman crossed her arms and led the way into the guild where she showed Makarov the cards she'd seen earlier, pointing to each one as she explained them.

"But the three I'm most worried about are these," She continued, sliding three cards over to the guild master, "The Tower, Judgment, and Death. The Tower represents chaotic situations, disillusionment, emotional breakdowns and the tearing down of what you once believed in. Judgement means making a new life. To heal and renew; it's a very hard card to read in part because it deals with very hard and final decisions. And it means facing something that most people don't want to face. You can't hide any longer, this card says, all the dead have risen and are out in the open. Face what you have to face, make that decision. Change. And finally," she finished, holding up the last dark card.

"Death." Makarov read, looking up at her with worry etched onto his features.

Cana nodded, "Another difficult card to read and interpret. It could mean something like an ending or new beginnings, transformations and all sorts of changes and transitions, or as simply showing that it is time to let go of the past and move on. However, it could have a much more gloomy meaning for Lucy…"

XxX

Natsu sped through the streets, shoving people ruthlessly out of his way in an attempt to get to Lucy's house faster. The sun was just rising and people were beginning to come out of their homes to open shops and get to work in hoards, making it harder to travel the streets.

The dragon slayer grit his teeth in anger as a carriage bounded it's way straight into his path, causing him to skid to a stop and halt before he collided with it. Contemplating plowing straight through it with a good fire punch through its middle, his thoughts were interrupted by Happy grabbing his clenched fists.

"Let me fly you!" He shouted over the growing roar of the people in the streets.

Natsu stiffly nodded as Carla picked up Wendy and soon they were off and flying at high aped to Lucy's home.

The pink haired man twitched irritably in Happy's grasp. He shouldn't have left Lucy; not so soon after he'd just gotten her back.

His fists tightened. But he had to get the man that thought he had gotten away with trying to hurt her. The images flashed back to him in rapid motion.

The search party for Lucy's attackers had soon found the two men slouched in a bar on the outskirts of town. Natsu made no secret what his intent was as he marched in the door and grabbed one of the men he recognized by the back of the head and slammed his face into the bar as hard as he could. The bartender in front of the two men stepped back warily and eyed the Fairy Tail wizards blocking the door as he shouted to get out of his bar.

No one listened to the man and instead stepped forward as a group, Gray leading them on to the next man. The pink haired dragon slayer ripped the man's face away from the shattered wood cutting his face and tossed him over the bar; shattering the bottles behind it and causing the bartender to duck and crawl away from enemy fire. Everyone but the two men left when the wizards walked further into the bar and away from the door, but Natsu hardly noticed as he lifted himself up and over the bar.

The man's face was a bloody mess and Natsu watched in unmasked disdain as the man tried to pull himself into a sitting position. Dragging the man up from his collar and propping him against the nearest cabinet, the dragon slayer began his questioning with the only sound behind them being the cheer from the others as they tossed around the other man.

"Who sent you to Lucy's grave?" He growled.

The man shook in what appeared to be laughter, "No one. Foun' it m'self."

Natsu grit his teeth and lifted the man towards him only to slam him back against the wood behind him again with a snapping crack off his head colliding with it. "Don't lie to me."

"Why? She mean somethin to you, eh?" He grunted once he had recovered from the blow to his head. He smiled, "I bet she does, the way you're actin' and turnin' all red."

Natsu' vision began to turn red in anger. How dare he even speak about Lucy let alone question him about it. But he couldn't let that faze him. He had to find out whether his theory was true or not and killing this man now would give him no answers to his questions.

The dragon slayer lit his hand aflame and brought it close to the man's face, letting his voice drop dangerously "Tell me who sent you and I won't have to burn every appendage off one by one until you either tell me or you're nothing but a burnt torso."

For the first time since Natsu had seen him, the man looked scared for his life. The man shook his head, his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish as his eyes bulged dangerously. "I can't …I…I can't…"

The pink haired boy shook his head and grabbed the man's ring finger, noting distantly that he had no ring on it. Focusing his fire into his hand, he began to heat it up slowly, letting the man know what was about to happen to him. Before the flame had even met a fraction of its power, the man was screaming and several curious guild members peeked over the bar only to be pulled back by a scowling Gray.

"Alright! Alright! But…he'll kill me. He'll kill me for sure…" He mumbled, almost to himself.

Natsu sat back and waited for his information.

"The man never gave us his real name, but he was a puppeteer. A magical one. Very powerful. That's all I know, I swear!" He yelled as Natsu stood and nodded.

Gesturing to the other guild mates who had thoroughly roughed up the other man, the Fairy Tail wizards left the bar.

And if anyone asked the pink haired dragon slayer if he had knocked the lit candle onto the highly flammable curtains on purpose on his way out, causing the entire bar to catch fire, he would deny it.

"Here!" Happy shouted, pulling Natsu away from his memories.

Dropping both Wendy and Natsu off at Lucy's door, the two Exceeds sat behind them, panting softly in exhaustion from the speed of the trip. At first the dragon slayer knocked on her door. Then he slammed his fist against it. When he got no response from shouting her name and probably waking up half of the neighborhood but receiving no response from the door in front of him, he took a few steps back.

Ignoring the curious stares from Wendy, Carla and Happy, Natsu locked onto his target and dug his feet into the ground resolutely. In a rush of adrenaline, the pink haired man rushed at the door and slammed into it with all of his body weight, knocking the entire thing off its hinges.

Lucy would probably have kittens about that later, but at the moment he didn't really care because there was the derisive scent of blood in the air wafting towards him from the kitchen.

Natsu skidded around the counter in the middle of Lucy's dark kitchen and immediately came to a halt. Wide eyed, he wasted no time in simultaneously calling for Wendy and reaching for Lucy's unconscious figure.

His heart raced but slowed slightly when he realized that it was just a few shallow cuts bleeding from the glass that had broken, but what confused him was why she'd even drop it in the first place and how she end up knocked out cold. Natsu's hand brushed away some of the broken glass from her arm when Wendy came around the corner and fell to her knees beside the blonde girl.

When the dragon slayer's hand came in contact with the Celestial wizard's skin, a dull glow broke out beneath her skin and Lucy whimpered in pain. Immediately, Natsu withdrew his hand and looked at Wendy, who was equally wide eyed and shocked. Confused, the medic reached out and brushed her own hand across Lucy's hand and gained the same response, only not as severe.

The girl scrunched her eyebrows together and a few moments ticked by as she healed what she could on the cut up girl between them. When she was finished, Wendy looked up to Natsu and took a deep breath.

"She'll be fine. Just a couple of glass wounds here and there, but she should be fine otherwise." She paused and looked down at her hands, "However, as to the matter of her skin, the only thing I can think of is that her body is for some reason running an exceptionally high temperature and any kind of heat burns her."

Wendy nodded to where Natsu had grazed Lucy's skin, noting the angry red burn that resided there now, "No one can touch her unless they have little to no body heat and unless you know someone dead or frozen, she'll be spending the night on the floor until she wakes up and explains what's going on."

The pink haired dragon slayer frowned and nodded. The seconds ticked by as the two sat in silence, pondering what to do when suddenly, a light bulb went off in Natsu's head. He quickly tried to smother the idea because it wasn't someone he wanted involved with Lucy any more than he already was, but it was the only way he could think of to bring her body temperature down.

Natsu scrambled to his feet and began running to the front door, "I'll be right back! Stay there!"

XxX

_She was running. _

_Running and looking back over her shoulder. It was hot. Really hot. _

_Lucy wiped her brow and clutched her keys closer to her chest. Wait. Her keys? Wide eyed, she looked down and saw that she held all of her silver keys. Slightly disheartened that she didn't have all of them, but still happy that she had some, Lucy was smiling when she turned into a dead end of the maze that she was running through._

_Barely having time to skid to a stop before smashing face first into a brick wall, Lucy tuned around and pressed her back into it so she could face whatever was chasing her. Feeling the back of the brick wall she leaned against, a rise in the flatness behind her caused her to turn around slightly. A glint of gold caught her eye and Lucy swiftly pulled it from the wall, her heart stuttering spasmodically. _

Aries.

_Panting, she tried summoning one of her silver keys but it wouldn't work. Her breath quickened and her skin began to burn with the heat that surrounded her. She was sure she was going to catch fire and burn to death before whatever it was that was chasing her found her. _

_In a last desperate attempt, Lucy cried out Aries name and unlocked her gate. The ram emerged through the golden light and instead of facing the opponent in front of them turned to Lucy. The celestial wizard's eyes widened at the sight of her spirit. _

_Was dirty, her skin was scratched and bloody, but the thing that frightened her most was the fact that she could see _through_ her. _

"_Help us." Aries whispered._

_Just as the thing began turning the corner and Lucy could see its hulking shadow, what seemed to be a blizzard swept through her nightmare and Lucy was suddenly hurtled into blissful darkness. _

**X**

**x**

**X**

**THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS**

**I'M SO SORRY I'M SO LATE IN POSTING…I had work and school and stuff…BUT DON'T WORRY school's almost out! **

**YYAAAYYYYYY**

**Again, I'm really sorry. I hope you guys like this chapter and I tried to get the plot moving with this one. It won't be as long as my other story, but I'm looking at probably 10-15 chapters, here…**

**PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.**


	7. Chapter 7: Regrouping

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail!**

**Chapter Seven: Regrouping**

_I really miss your hair in my face_

_And the way your innocence tastes_

_And I think you should know this_

_You deserve much better than me._

It had been eight days.

Eight days since she was found out to be alive, eight days since that nightmare in the kitchen, eight days since Natsu came back with a frazzled Gray in tow and eight days since the ice mage had brought her back from burning alive.

And for eight days she stayed locked in her room.

Lucy sat on her floor, arms around her curled up legs and chin resting on her knees. She ignored the pounding Natsu made the first day on her door insisting that she eat, hating that she knew he had stayed out there with her plate of food for hours trying to reason with her. And knowing that after she didn't respond, he still continued to sit in front of her door not saying anything at all, hoping she would at least let him give her the food.

But she didn't.

She couldn't .

On the third day, he'd begged her again to eat. He'd even asked Levy to come help because he figured it was him that had done something wrong and that Lucy just didn't want to see him. Even through her friends sobbing and pleading, Lucy refused to move or acknowledge them in any way.

She knew that he'd been sleeping outside her room since the first night she'd dragged and locked herself in there, but it wasn't until the sixth night that he was harsh with her.

At first, it was soft begging, just like the other days. He would knock softly on her door, telling her that he loved her and didn't want to see her hurting like this. Then, as the night deepened, lack of sleep and stress caused Natsu to tip over the edge.

He began to yell.

He told her that he'd wished she'd stayed in that coffin; that she had never even gotten his hopes up that she would love him. All the things she told him were lies. All the things he told her were lies. Did she really think he would love her? He could never fall in love with someone so selfish and heartless.

He threw the twin of her ring through the crack at the bottom of her door. It crackled with fire and heat as it collided with her bare legs, burning her in different spots. Lucy didn't move but merely gasped lightly as it rested against her thigh, slowly melting the skin there.

Her glazed eyes merely glanced at the burning metal and then continued to stare at the darkness in front of her.

Natsu left that night on a mission after Erza forced him to leave the small house as she took up vigil outside.

Erza tried the tough love approach, but it just made Lucy feel even worse.

Erza left soon after, leaving Lucy alone in her home.

The nightmare came every night. Every night, she had to watch Aries burn and melt as she tried to protect her friend. She would always awake drenched in sweat with burns on her skin. Every night, she was reminded that they were fading.

And that she could do nothing about it.

She was weak.  
She was powerless.

And then a light shone on her dresser.

Mildly intrigued, but not able to move very much from lack of food and energy, Lucy craned her neck to look at the silver objects. Her eyes widened and her mind was overcome with hope.

Her silver keys?

Natsu said that he'd given away the keys that were the most powerful to spread them out, but he said nothing about her silver keys…

Trying to squelch the hope that rose in her heart in the high probability of disappointment, Lucy attempted to move from her position on the floor. Rolling to her hands and knees, the blonde shook with the effort. Her body wouldn't obey her. The slightest movement caused her unbearable pain and there was no one there to help her.

Lucy crawled as far as she could before collapsing into her dresser; hand outstretched towards her keys in the hopes that they would fall into her hand.

The eighth night, Natsu came back and spoke with Erza in the Fairy Tail Guild. He couldn't get on the train. The things he said to Lucy were too harsh and she didn't deserve them. He'd even thrown the ring back at her…

Guilt ate at him as he walked at a clipped pace back to her house, his guilt and steps increased when he realized no one had been there for her the past two days. He mockingly patted himself on the back as he walked through the front door. Really smooth, Natsu. Way to show a girl you love her.

Natsu slid down the wall next to her door and said nothing as his eyes drooped closed in exhaustion. When he awoke on the ninth morning, he felt like something was off. He knocked on her door and just as he suspected he got no response, but this was different. He couldn't feel her presence like he usually did.

_Something's wrong, _he thought, and kicked open her door.

Two rings rested on the floor where she'd been sitting.

Lucy was already gone.

XxX

He tried to keep as quiet as he could as they passed through the nearly deserted streets of the sleeping town. He had found her crumpled against the dresser in her room and reaching for her keys while whimpering in pain. He saw the burns on her skin and was glad that he didn't radiate any heat as he pulled her into his arms.

Peeking around the corner of a building and trying not to jostle her around too much, he frowned. He had been watching her the past eight days and hoping that she would pick herself up, figuratively and literally, but she hadn't.

She had just let the fact that her Spirits were fading consume her.

He didn't try to tell her what to do in hopes that she could figure it out on her own, but it seemed that being around her Fairy Tail friends while they could do nothing as well wasn't helping.

So he took her away.

He looked down at the girl he was carrying and frowned deeply. She had lost so much weight and looked so fragile. Intense anger welled up inside him at her good-for-nothing friends who allowed her to get this way. They left her alone when she needed them most.

Lucy clutched the key ring close to her chest in her sleep and he made a mental note to send someone to get food when they were far enough away from Fiore and Fairy Tail.

A key she was holding glowed as the voice drifted though his ears, "You need to rest, Horologium. This is far enough for now. Let's stop in the woods here for a while and I'll go get food." Lyra's soothing voice called out.

The Clock spirit huffed and propped himself against a tree, pulling Lucy out from his glass interior and laying her on the soft grass gently.

Lyra came out from her key, hating that she had to use some of Lucy's minuscule energy, but comforted herself with the thought that if she got her some food, she would get better. Patting Horologium on his shoulder, he nodded and sent himself back to the Spirit world as Lyra went into a nearby town in search of food.

XxX

Lucy opened her bleary eyes when her stomach growled painfully, prompting her to turn on her side and roll into the fetal position to try and get it to go away. Scrunching her eyes closed against the sunlight and settling in to fall back asleep, the blonde couldn't help but catch a whiff of something _delicious_.

Wait, were they cooking in her _room?_

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly, ignoring the pain from malnutrition and fresh burns on her skin. Her head snapped to her right, where the smell was the strongest, where she found Lyra quietly humming over a fire with a small chicken hanging over it and a bowl of fruit next to her.

Lucy immediately pounced on the little bowl, greedily shoving her hands into the mountain of fruit and stuffing her face with grapes, orange slices, and bananas.

The blonde flopped back on her back after gorging on the food in front of her while waiting on the chicken that was slowly roasting next to her. The grass beneath her was soft, cushy, and lush, making the Celestial Wizard sigh complacently. Lucy turned her head to the side and ran her hands through the sweet smelling green grass next to her as she basked in the sun.

"Is this a dream?" She asked no one in particular. After pondering that question for a moment, she frowned and continued as she stared up into the blue sky, "Am I dead?"

A soft laugh came from next to her and Lucy sat up on her elbows to get a good look at who it was coming from.

"Lyra!" She exclaimed, using some of her energy to tackle the spirit into a hug. Holding her shoulders at a distance away from her, Lucy smiled, "What are you doing here? What happened? Where am I? All I remember is seeing my silver keys…"

The sweet young girl pried the Celestial mage's hands off of her and smiled gently at the blonde. Lyra turned to pull the chicken off its place above the fire and cut some up for her malnourished friend. Setting a plate in front of Lucy who began to pick at and eat it immediately, Lyra doused the fire and turned to the blonde haired girl.

"I hope it's alright. I'm not Virgo, but that's the best I can do…" She explained quietly.

Lucy smiled with her cheeks packed full of food, "Iths grea Lyra, fanks." She mumbled.

The spirit nodded and her expression became solemn as her eyes drifted to the grass between them, her head dropping in shame, "I'm here because we saw you in your room and decided that we'd had enough of seeing you suffer."

Lucy swallowed hard and looked up at her spirit with sad eyes, "Lyra…"

The songstress shook her head roughly, "You are our _friend_, Lucy and we _hate_ to see you hurt so much! Why didn't you come to us sooner? We can help you find the others!" She paused and Lucy realized that drops of water had begun dripping off Lyra's face, "Instead you tried to depend on your Guild mates who did nothing for you but let you go through this alone, and that's not what friends do!" Her hands clutched the fabric over her knees as she cried.

The Spirit's voice halted as it broke and as Lucy was about to speak again, Lyra held up a finger and took a deep breath, her voice still shaking and her eyes remaining downcast, "I had to watch helplessly while you died in front of me and let the zodiac keys try to save you for us and be punished for it. I had to watch you burn from the inside out every night for _eight nights_."

Lyra finally looked up to Lucy with tears in her eyes and a determined face, "We won't let you suffer anymore!"

As Lyra broke down in tears and covered her face with her hands, Lucy shoved her now empty plate aside and gathered the spirit in her arms, "Thank you." Was all she said.

The Spirit only sobbed harder.

XxX

"Open Gate of the Compass! Pyxis!" Lucy shouted, weaving her hand expertly in the air in front of her.

After her talk with Lyra, the blonde had sent the girl back to the spirit realm, deciding that she needed to rest and recover for a little while after all of the things she'd done for Lucy recently.

Over the next four days, Lucy and her spirits wandered around the forest and worked hard at getting her back to a resemblance of her former self, both physically and mentally. Lyra packed her full of food she got from earning money in town singing in the town square, Crux read to her and got her up to date in everything that had been going on while she was gone, Plue snuggled up to her and made her smile with his presence and Horologium watched over her as she trained and got back into shape.

Though these sun filled days recovering with her spirits were fun and made her feel better, she missed her Fairy Tail friends. She knew that they must have figured out that she was gone by now and were looking for her. Lucy felt bad about making them worry so much about her, but her silver keys were right. They couldn't help her the way her spirits could and they would only get hurt if they travelled with her.

Natsu's words came to her every time she had a moment to herself.

_Did you really think I would love you? I could never fall in love with someone so selfish and heartless!_

It was better that he felt that way. He deserved better anyway.

Lucy shook herself out of her daydreaming and focused on the task at hand. Crouching in front of the red owl in front of her, she smiled at his gleeful demeanor. "Pyxis, I know this is hard for you, but the others tell me that you were next to Aries on the Key ring when Master sent her to a new place. Can you tell me where that was?"

The little bird seemed to think for a moment, putting his wing to his chin. After a few moments of sorting through his memory, he jumped into the air and landed at Lucy's feet, bowing so he could show her the compass on her head.

Lucy smiled and clapped with glee, patting her Spirit on the head and beginning to march in determination with him to the destination he set for her. The blonde had gathered some food that Lyra had gathered for her in a small cloth that she held over her back and a cloak just in case she needed something to sleep in if it was cold. Though she was feeling better, she got tired and hungry often still and could only walk or run short distances at a time.

After about an hour of walking, Lucy's eyebrows scrunched together. This part of the forest seemed really familiar to her…

When they came to the edge of the trees, Lucy looked out to see what city they were in and skidded to a halt, causing Pyxis to run into her legs from behind. The blonde girl turned around stiffly and grabbed the top of the owl's head, peering at the compass and looking behind her repeatedly; making sure they had gone the right way.

Lucy smacked her head against the glass fixture and groaned when she realized what had happened.

The compass had led her straight back to the Fairy Tail guild.

"Pyxis! I told you to take me to where he _sent_ Aries, not where she was sent _from_!" She yelled, shaking around the little spirit as it cooed at her.

Sighing, she sent Pyxis back to the Spirit world and glanced over her shoulder at the looming guild behind her. Her stomach twisted in knots; something that had never happened before with the sight of the large building.

The Celestial Wizard looked down at her attire and frowned. The only thing Lyra could find her in town was a loose forest green dress that came to points at the bottom and reached the middle of her shins at the longest point. The back was open and the front came to a small 'v' at the top of her chest. She had no shoes, so her feet were practically caked in mud, (though she tried to keep them clean, but really, she was walking around in a _forest_)and had five bangles dangling off her left wrist from the people who had tossed them at Lyra in lieu of money. The Spirit had no need for them and each one had a charm that meant protection, so Lyra gave them to Lucy. Her silver keys dangled from her right hip and her hair was loose and shaggy as it fell to her mid back.

The blonde wizard sighed and pulled the sack from over her back in front of her so she could pull out the only other piece of clothing she had in hopes of covering herself a little better. The long hooded cape dragged the ground and was what Horologium used when he had to carry her through the streets and into the woods all those days ago when she couldn't walk for herself. Lucy pulled the black hood over her head and tucked her blonde strands into it carefully.

In short, she looked like a Hobbit from the waist down and a forest nymph from the waist up.

Without another choice, Lucy braced herself for the worst. It had only been four days, but she knew that the members of Fairy Tail would be pissed at her for up and leaving. However, speaking to Master about where he sent her keys was vital to their (and her own) survival.

And if she ran into Natsu…well, she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Taking a deep breath, the Celestial Wizard stepped out from the shade of the forest and walked to the front doors of the Fairy Tail Guild.

XxX

At a bench in the back of the Fairy Tail Guild Hall, a dragon slayer sat moodily as he rolled a ring between his two fingers on the table in front of him. The other rested against his chest as it hung from its chain fastened to the back of his neck.

A red headed woman sat in front of him, cracking her knuckles and glancing around periodically as she tried to block out the annoying rattle the ring made against the wood in front of her.

Behind the table leaning against the wall with arms crossed and his eyes closed stood an ice mage.

A very disturbed ice mage.

For the couple of seconds that he'd held Lucy in his arms to get her to cool down from whatever was happening to her, Gray Fullbuster had been disturbed.

Not only had she been burning alive from the temperature she was at, but when he tried to send his ice magic to help her, he was almost immediately sucked into her nightmare. He stood behind Lucy as her Spirit's skin melted off and caught fire. He heard Lucy and Aries cry out in unanimous screams of agony.

Gray tried to reach out so he could help the two girls who seemed to be experiencing the same pain, but he could only move as if underwater. He watched helplessly as Aries' bones became black and charred and faded into ashes and saw Lucy suffering the same fate at a slower pace. The Celestial wizard's skin seemed to be bubbling and blood began to seep from her eyes and ears. She held her head as she seemed to feel her Spirit's leftover pain and agony, never seeing the shadow that was approaching her.

So Gray did the only thing he really could do.

He created a blizzard that would have made Ur proud.

Sighing quietly, he opened his eyes slowly. He hadn't been sleeping very well since then, especially when Lucy decided to lock herself in her room and then run away like she had. He was the only one that understood what was happening to her every night and he hadn't gone to see her until she was already gone. He could have helped her, but her childish antics just frustrated him and caused Gray to stay away from her home while the others tried to coax her away from it.

The ice mage's eyes drifted towards the table in front of him and he pushed himself from the wall behind him to sit next to Erza, leaning his back on the tabletop and bracing his elbows on it.

"Where do you think Lucy is?" Gray asked the red headed woman.

Shrugging Erza sighed quietly in exhaustion, "I have no idea, but when we find her, she is in so much trouble—"

"You mean _if_," the pink haired man interrupted, keeping his eyes downcast and his voice low, "_if_ we find her."

Gray stiffened and prepared for the requip mage to throttle Natsu across the room for interrupting her, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the red headed woman merely scowled and opened her mouth, probably with the thought of telling him where he could shove his depression, when the doors to Fairy Tail creaked open and Gray elbowed her roughly in the side.

Erza whirled to face him with revenge in her eyes, but Gray merely nodded in front of him, making the curious warrior woman turn to see what he was so enraptured about.

A silent and barefooted person walked through the middle of the Guild Hall, a hood obscuring the view of their face as they stared straight ahead. The person seemed to hover over the floor from their noiseless footfalls as the black cloud approached the Master's room.

Immediately, Erza stood up and pointed at the cloaked person, "Stop them! No one visits the master without making themselves known!"

A crowd of Fairy Tail members obscured the path of the stranger, Natsu standing at the forefront with Erza and Gray on either side of him. The hooded figure came to a halt and made no move to say a word.

The pink haired man clenched his teeth, "Who are you and what do you want in Fairy Tail?"

When the guild remained silent, Erza bristled in anger and approached the stranger, who took a step back in response. The red headed woman grabbed the top of the hood, "If you won't tell us, then we'll just have to see for our—"

"Now, now, is that any way to treat a guest?"

Xxx

Lucy was shaking.

She had never been on the receiving end of Fairy Tail's anger and it was _traumatizing_. Lucy wasn't even looking at the real threat of Erza standing right in front of her, but straight at the dragon slayer glaring such hate directly at her.

Her heart stuttered and she froze.

_Did you really think I would love you? I could never fall in love with someone so selfish and heartless!_

Lucy began to breathe faster and harder as the tears began to build and her heart kept stuttering uncontrollably. He hated her. He never wanted to see her again. Why was she here again? What was she doing here?

The heat from her reaction began to leave her skin covered in splotches as her reaction became worse.

_This isn't supposed to be happening right now! I'm not even in the middle of that dream! What's going on?_

She was about to be unmasked when Master finally intervened.

All eyes turned to the man behind the crowd, Erza halting in her movements, "M-master…"

The short man moved forward but stayed flanked by the group of Fairy Tail members amassed there and gestured for Lucy to follow him. "Let go of that hood and go back to what you were doing. I'll take it from here."

Stunned silence fell over the guild members as Master shuffled away towards his office until Erza let go of Lucy's hood. Lucy could feel the stiffness of her movements and knew that more than anything, in that moment, Erza wanted to rip the hood from her head. The blonde Celestial Wizard closed her eyes and tried to calm down before stumbling forward to follow the short man.

Slowly, the members parted for her, staying just close enough for her to feel their body heat as she passed through them. The room was silent and no one spoke, making the atmosphere even more tense. Lucy didn't dare look up into any of their faces in fear of being recognized, but she couldn't stop herself from chancing a glance at Natsu.

The pink haired man stood close as he crossed his arms and glared at her just like the others, but her eyes were drawn to the stare that seemed mainly curious and not angry. Slightly behind the dragon slayer stood Gray, arms at his sides and a small frown on his face. When her eyes met his, instant recognition passed over his features and he stepped forward hesitantly.

Lucy panicked and pushed her way through the crowd faster as she tried to get away from her old teammates and towards the small room waiting for her on the other side.

XxX

She slammed the door shut behind her and leaned her back against it, panting heavily and dying to take the heavy cloak off her burning skin.

"Here," Makarov said, tossing a bottle at her.

Lucy instinctually caught the object and held it up to her face to read the contents and inwardly scoffed, tossing it back. "That won't help me." She stated, earning a raised eyebrow from Makarov.

Placing the jar back into the drawer he took it from, he hopped lightly onto his desk, "Well, take off that bulky cloak. I'm sweating just looking at you in that."

Lucy almost smiled and unfastened the tie at her neck, gathering the material into her hands and stuffing it back into her pack. Her skin tingled from the burns and she swiftly tried to glance down to look at damage her arms were showing.

_Thank God there are no blisters this time…it's just a little red…_

"You look like a lobster!" Makarov exclaimed.

The mention of a lobster reminded her of Cancer and Lucy covered her face, bursting out in tears as the Master of Fairy Tail sputtered an apology. Makarov gently maneuvered her into a chair and waited uncomfortably as she calmed down.

"I-I'm s-s-sorr-y, Mast-ter." Lucy gulped and tried to quiet her sobs, "I just miss them so much." She continued quietly.

Makarov linked his fingers together and rested his elbows against his desk as he watched the young celestial wizard take deep breaths in front of him. He pulled a piece of paper out of the drawer of his desk and approached the girl quietly.

The blonde tearfully looked out the window, "I wonder if they're scared being stuck in the human world…"

Lucy looked back at him as he pressed the list into her hands. "Here are the places I sent your Keys. I hope they're still—ach!"

Lucy squeezed the air straight out of Makarov's lungs and kneeled on the floor to clutch the man as she cried, "Thank you, Master." Pulling away, she smiled largely, "Thank you so much."

Rising from the floor, she wiped her tears and pulled her cloak over her shoulders once again. Lucy put her hand on the doorknob to leave when Makarov's voice halted her movements.

"You're going to bring your old team with you aren't you?"

Lucy closed her eyes that were quickly filling with tears once again and rested her head against the door in front of her, "They don't want me anymore." She whispered. "And even if they did, I don't know what's happening to me. I may be contagious and then what? I spread it to the rest of my team and watch them suffer?"

"Lucy—"

Yanking her hood back over her head messily with one hand, she jerked the door open with the other and marched—

Straight into the cluster of Gray, Erza and Natsu.

The group tumbled onto the floor in front of her and Lucy clutched her hands to her chest with the paper crinkled in her fist. Erza roughly shoved the boys off from on top of her and leapt to her feet first, standing with her hands on her hips.

"Lucy. We respect your wants and decisions, but venturing off to do this on your own is…well…it's stupid. We know the risks and know that you would do the same for us without question. We're coming with you."

Gray nodded behind her with a small smirk on his face, "Who else can cool you down like I can?"

Lucy smiled slightly at him and glanced to his left.

She met Natsu's eyes and let her brown orbs immediately drop to the ground. She didn't want to hear what she knew he was going to say. He would be coming, but only because his team was going. He wouldn't let them go alone.

Makarov clapped his hands behind them and shattered the awkward silence that had descended just as Natsu opened his mouth to speak, "Alright! It's settled then. Team Natsu will take on this mission to find Lucy's keys!"

Lucy looked at her team and nodded begrudgingly. Though they knew little to nothing about her situation and condition, they would be tagging along for the ride, come hell or high water. She was resolved to keep both contact and emotions with them to a minimum in preparation for the worst possible scenario.

As she walked through the Fairy Tail Guild with them by her side, Lucy felt that everything would be fine.

_Yeah, everything will be fine._

She wasn't sure if she was really convinced of that, or if she was still trying to convince herself.

X

x

X

ALRIGHTY THEN.

Yep, this is the next chapter. Sorry about the sluggishness of it, but that's how it came out…

So, yeah Pyxis helped her navigate and understood what the hell she was talking about. I haven't…exactly…watched up to the point where she actually has his Key, but that's how I envision his power to be like. If it's wrong (which it probably is), I'm sorry.

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS GUYSSS

PLEASE REVIEW ON THIS CHAPTER


	8. Chapter 8: Time of Dying

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Three Days Grace or Time of Dying! **(but I wish I did)

**Chapter 8: Time of Dying**

_On this bed I lay_

_Losing everything_

_I can see my life passing me by_

_Was it all too much_

_Or just not enough_

_Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare_

She looked down at the map she'd drawn once again and sighed quietly to herself. Lucy placed her head in her hands and peered at the paper as her elbows rested on the wooden surface in front of her. She began to grumble to herself in frustration as her head slid down so her hands could tangle themselves in the blonde locks on either side of her head.

"Lucy, you need to eat something." A voice chided as they halted in front of her and slid a plate of food towards her.

The Celestial Wizard flicked her hand distractedly at Gray to try and shoo him away without raising her head to acknowledge him, "I ate a little while ago; I'm not hungry right now."

Gray scowled at the top of her head, but didn't say anything more and decided to not sit down either. Lucy had become very isolated since they left the Guild and no one could figure out why she began to act that way. If he tried to sit down she would probably shoot up like a rocket with some lame excuse and bolt out the door of the Guild they currently inhabited.

They were only a couple of hours away from their first destination and some of Lucy's keys—Red Hood.

The list that Makarov had given them was where _he_ personally had sent them soon after her death, but that had been months ago. Since then, the keys had been used as bargaining chips and in battle, causing the mage who was given them from the Fairy Tail Guild to no longer have them in their possession.

Blue Pegasus informed them of some of the key swaps and Lucy made a map so she could get to all of them quickly. They were only spread out through four guilds, but all of them were either dark or stood on bad grounds with Fairy Tail, which stressed Lucy out even more.

Gray continued to babble on about how she needed to take better care of herself, but Lucy stopped listening and continued to introvert into her thoughts.

_Red Hood…Red Hood…_She thought, rifling through her mind for anything she may have heard or seen of them. She scrunched her eyebrows together and grabbed her pen off the counter top to twirl through her fingers.

"…worried about you…sleep…." Gray's voice faded in and out of her thoughts, annoying her and making her wish that he would just go away.

Lucy looked hard at her pen as she tried to focus when a light went off in her head and her hand began to write over the top of her map where she'd drawn the Red Hood Guild.

_Staffs. Pict Magic on paper. Easy to beat. Hard to distinguish. _She wrote, when suddenly the paper was ripped out from under her, causing her to leave a large pen slash across the top of the paper.

Lucy snapped her head up with anger flaming in her eyes. Gray stood in front of her, one hand on his hip and the other holding up her map, waving it around and taunting her with it.

"What? You want this back? Well then I guess you'll just have to eat first. Unless you think you can get it away from me…"

The blonde girl stood slowly, pressing the palms of her hands against the top of the wooden table in front of her while keeping her eyes pinned to Gray the entire time. "Gray, this is not a game. Give me the map back now."

The ice mage merely jabbed his finger towards the lunch bar with a very pointed look her way.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. Fine. He wanted to be a difficult child—that was him. She was mature and so _not_ going to fall for his stupid trick at getting her to eat so instead of taking the bait, she turned her back on him. The blonde began walking in the direction of the bar without a second look back at him. Lucy heard the sound of his arm falling back to his side (probably in what he thought was victory) and in turn, her map was left unguarded for a spit second.

Lucy smirked, and honing in on the abilities she'd practiced with her spirits, ducked, spun on her heel and lunged toward the unsuspecting ice mage.

_Ha! So much for the mighty ice—damnit! _

The paper that had previously been in front of her was quickly and rudely snatched away from her line of sight, causing her to stumble behind Grey and pivot around to snarl at his back.

"Too slow, Luce." He stated with a smirk.

"Alright," She growled as she straightened, "You asked for it."

XxX

Natsu and Erza approached the Guild slowly, the pink haired man staring off to his right moodily as the requip mage struggled with the bags on her arms and tried to reason with him.

"Natsu. Lucy isn't keeping her distance just from you. She's not letting any of us near her. Don't take it personally." She stated bluntly, wresting a particularly obnoxious bag of clothes away from catching on her armor.

Natsu kept his eyes averted, "She didn't take the ring back either."

Erza sighed and rubbed her forehead with her free armored hand. She remembered the stricken look Natsu wore after speaking to Lucy the first night they'd spent together as a team once again. Lucy had been sitting on a log by herself and staring into the fire, unaware of the intense gaze the dragon slayer had directed her way. Erza and Grey both tried to tell Natsu that it was a bad idea to try and speak to her in that moment, but the pink haired man wasn't listening. He was convinced that the whole thing could be sorted out with a simple apology and that Lucy was sure to take back the ring he gave her.

And so, a blank look and a shake of the head later, Lucy was right back where she had been earlier—staring into the fire with no rings on her.

"Of _course_ she didn't take the ring back right in that moment, Natsu—" Erza began, but was cut off as a nearby civilian bumped into her shoulder and almost caused an avalanche of boxes and bags to be flung from her body as they ran by.

The red headed woman turned on her heel to berate the man, but paused halfway through when she saw the state of the guild in front of her.

Broken glass was strewn everywhere and as a breeze passed through, Natsu could easily smell the sticky scent of alcohol drying on the floors. Wizards and civilians alike were scrambling out of the Guild's proximity, just in time for an ice sword to erupt through the front door and land at Natsu's feet.

The pink haired man glanced down at the melting piece of ice with a small scowl and began marching towards the Guild doors, with Erza hot on his heels.

As they stepped over the rubble in the front entrance, they could hear Lucy shouting.

"_Give it back!"_

The sound of a whip slicing through the air was heard and the ice mage laughed outright, "I can do this all day, Lucy! _You_, on the other hand, will pass out from the lack of food you've had!"

An enraged snarl came from the blonde's lips as she pulled her whip taunt in front of her, watching Gray dart around on the floor above her and waiting for his next attack. This time, she knew she could get her map back in the second it took for him to cast his spell. Only then could she use her window of opportunity…

"Ice make…"

Lucy narrowed her eyes and smiled.

_There. _

She pulled her whip behind her and began to lash it forward—

"Gray! What are you doing?!" Natsu shouted, leaping in front of the attack and between the two battling mages.

Gray's attack shot off, hitting an on-fire Natsu, while Lucy's whip wrapped around the ice mage's wrist that held her map. The blonde grinned and yanked on the taunt chord, watching with glee as Gray tried to fumble after it as it sailed over the edge of the second floor towards her.

The paper fell lightly into her hands and Lucy held it up in victory as she waved it around, "I got it! Haha! I took it from—"

The celestial wizard cut off as she felt the paper in her hand wither and fall to ash around her.

She twitched as she continued to look at her now-empty hand and the boys in front of her froze in fear.

_It must have gone through Natsu's fire when I pulled it from Gray…_she thought.

A small giggle escaped from her lips. Everyone in the Guild that was left watched her warily as it turned into outright laughter that had her gripping her sides and hunching over. Erza was the first to join in with the blonde, and the other two boys laughed along with them, finally just happy that they heard Lucy laugh again.

XxX

The blonde sighed as she exited her shower the next morning. Today, they would be paying a visit to the Red Hood Guild and Lucy was giddy and nervous at the same time.

She and the boys helped clean up the mess they'd made in the Guild with the blonde grumbling about her map the entire time and the boys looking exceedingly more and more guilty. Only this morning had she had the energy to crawl from her bed to the shower.

Dropping the towel from her form and slipping into her underwear, she stood facing her bed and looking at the suitcase that lay on top of it. Erza had been kind enough to go shopping for her the night before without Lucy even asking her to do so. Images of bulky armor filled her mind as she pulled on the zipper to open it.

She let out an audible sigh of relief when all she could see were clothes that looked like the ones in her closet at home. Pulling out a pair of faded denim shorts and a blue V-neck, she closed the suitcase and turned to put them on.

The Red Hood Guild would undoubtedly put up a fight when she asked for her keys back—Aries, Sagittarius and Scorpio were powerful keys and already knew how to work well with one another. But, if what the Spirit King said was correct…they wouldn't be keys anymore, but spirits trapped in the human world.

The realization that they'd be fading even as the thought crossed her mind made her heart stutter in worry and pull her clothes on faster. She reached for her belt that held her keys and whip and held the leather in her hand for a few seconds.

"I promise; you'll all be together soon." She whispered as she clipped it around her waist.

Lucy pulled her golden locks out of the towel she had them wrapped in and closed her eyes as she ran her brush through it.

Last night had been fun and she loved laughing with her friends once again, but she couldn't afford to take that risk. Is she was contagious and infected all of them, she would never be able to forgive herself.

The thought of being alone just made the memories from her childhood leap to the front of her mind. Her father ignoring her after her mother's death, the yelling and screaming when she wanted his attention, the hours left to herself when no one had time for her. She had been alone as a child. Reverting back to that wouldn't be hard.

But distancing herself from her friends hurt. It hurt more than she thought it would. Seeing the suitcase Erza left her on her bed, the worry that creased Gray's brow as he tried to get her to eat, Natsu leaping in front of her when he thought she was in danger…

Lucy's eyes snapped open as the images faded away and knocking could be heard at her hotel door.

"Come in!" She called, putting the brush and her thoughts aside for the time being.

Natsu opened her door cautiously, poking his head around the wooden door so only one eye could be seen. Apparently realizing that she was conscious and clothed, he shuffled into her room a couple of steps with a piece of paper in his hands.

Raising an eyebrow when he said nothing, Lucy gestured at the rolled up paper, "What's that?"

The pink haired man rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground sheepishly, "Well, Gray and I felt bad that we—I mean I—kind of…incinerated your last map, so we made you a new one." He finished, holding the paper out to her. Lucy launched off the bed with glee and snatched the paper from him, happily taking a closer look at it.

A smile tugged at her lips, "Did you draw the pictures, Natsu?" She asked, indicating the little chibi's with her pointer finger.

The dragon slayer grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "Yeah! Gray said that you didn't need them, but I knew you'd like them."

Lucy smiled and silence descended into the room as she stepped towards the window to get a better look at it. They had drawn all of it right, enabling her to convince herself that her old one _hadn't_ just been ruthlessly destroyed.

"Er…we—we should get going, Luce."

Natsu's voice broke her away from admiring the map the boys had made for her while trying to calm the happy squeeze in her chest the piece of paper caused. The blonde turned her head to look at him fully and noticed that he was looking at her just as intently.

The silence dragged on in the room; the quiet filled with nothing and everything that they needed to say. The air felt heavy around Lucy and it made her frown. She had never felt this intense about Natsu before, but maybe that just meant they were closer than ever before.

And once you let yourself become close to someone, you run the risk of getting hurt even if they love you.

Lucy swallowed.

_Love?_

Lucy rolled up the paper and nodded, breaking eye contact with the boy, "Right. Let's go."

XxX

The guild was hidden in the shadow of the trees that covered it and emanated an evil feeling that gave Lucy goose bumps. Rubbing her arms, she followed her friends along the dirt path that led to the front doors. As they approached, laughter and loud music could be heard above the commotion in the Guild Hall.

Lucy glanced over to Natsu to find that he was watching her as well. He inclined his head towards the Guild as if to ask if she was okay to keep moving and she nodded but halted abruptly.

"Before we go in there, there's something I need to warn you guys of." She started, gaining their attention as they stopped and turned to face her as well. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "My keys…will no longer be keys. When I…died…they tried to save me. Because of that, they were punished and cast into the human world. I am the only one that can save them. Both by finding their human form and their key."

Her friends nodded and she had to smother the urge to hug them because they were probably really confused, yet they were going along with her crazy story anyway.

Erza nodded after a brief pause and stepped into the circle they'd formed, "So this is what we're going to do…"

XxX

Lucy spotted Aries right away.

Much to Erza and Natsu's chagrin, Lucy was insistent that she be the one to find their human forms with Gray while the other two looked for the keys. When questioned on why this was, she bluntly stated that she and Gray ran a lesser chance of being recognized than a dragon slayer or the mighty Titania.

And so, there she was trying to stand as inconspicuously as possible in the corner as she scoped out the room in front of her. The commotion the guild members were causing gave them a big enough window of time to sneak into the guild, but she knew it was only a matter of time before someone realized that they were there. Luckily, Natsu and Erza had found another way to sneak in and look for the keys, though Lucy never thought the word sneak and Natsu would ever be used in the same sentence. Ever.

Shaking her head of her thoughts, she focused on the girl in front of her. Where before Aries had horns, her cotton candy locks were held in two pony tails on either side of her head. Her clothes remained the same, garnering undue attention onto herself, though surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind.

Just as Lucy was about to alert Gray of this news, the ice mage elbowed her in the side and nodded to a corner across form theirs. Two men sat hunched together over a table of what looked to be a game of cards. One wore striped red and white pants and a long green shirt and had dark hair and was leaning forward towards the table appearing to be analyzing his next move. The other with white and red hair wore black jeans and a button up red shirt with the sleeves rolled up and was currently leaning back in his chair so it balanced on two legs as he watched the other struggle with his move.

Lucy ignored the pain in her chest as she watched the two interact. They both acted like they knew nothing of her death or if they did, they didn't care. She nodded to the ice mage and the two shuffled apart; Lucy to get Aries and Gray to try and sway Sagittarius and Scorpio to come speak to Lucy.

The Celestial King had said that she was the only one who could bring her spirits back to the Spirit World, but she had no idea just how she was going to do that. The blonde girl put her hand on her hip to reassure herself of her silver keys as she approached Aries, who looked down at her from her position sitting atop the bar.

"Aries?" Lucy started nervously, wary of all the men surrounding her. The celestial spirit raised an eyebrow at her in question and caused the stellar wizard's mouth to gape slightly. Her spirit had been meek and shy! Not this atrocity of an arrogant man eater that she supposedly was now!

"Do you need something?" The pink haired girl asked haughtily.

The men in the room surrounding her seemingly inched closer to her at the sound of her voice, causing Lucy to be pushed even further towards the bar. The blonde's breathing came quicker and shallower as she glanced around her and could see no sign of Gray, only thehooded faces of the adoring men Aries had around her.

Whipping her head back up to the pink haired woman, Lucy tried again, "You don't remember me?"

The blonde pleaded.

She had to remember her. She was her Spirit! Even when Loke had been cast away from the Spirit World for years, he knew who he was and who his old master was, so why, after only a few months, had Aries lost her memory of her?

Aries slid from the bar and landed delicately on her feet in front of Lucy, ignoring the hands from her suitors offering to help her down with a glare. Turning her attention back to Lucy and standing so close to her that they nearly touched, Aries bent her face towards the blonde's.

"No." She stated.

Lucy felt as if she'd been slapped in the face and recoiled as if she had. Her heart hammered in her chest. If Aries didn't remember her, how was she supposed to tell her that she needed to get back into the Spirit Realm?

A crash interrupted her thoughts and Lucy whirled around with the rest of the group around her.

"Who is this? You're not from the Red Hood Guild!" Sagittarius bellowed as he held a very unamused Gray upside down by his ankle and ripped off his shirt.

"A Fairy Tail Spy! Get him!"

The Guild erupted into chaos, save for Aries and Lucy, who stood perfectly still across from each other.

"You are Fairy Tail as well?" The pink haired girl questioned calmly.

"Y-yes, but Aries, let me explain—" Lucy stuttered, her eyes wide as her Spirit approached her.

A hard slap from Aries had Lucy tumbling across the room and into many of the Red Hood wizards. The blonde easily slid to her feet and was met with an ocean of red. Her hand automatically went to her belt, but her hand grasped nothing but air.

"Looking for this?" Aries asked quietly; calmly. She held up her ring of keys with her index finger and began twirling them around. "Isn't it a little odd for a girl your age to be collecting silly things like keys?"

_She doesn't even realize that she's a Celestial Spirit! _Lucy thought in despair.

"No! They're not just regular old keys, listen to me—!"

Aries flapped a hand at her as Lucy tried to break through the crowd to get to where she was, "Yes, yes, I know. They must be very special to you, right? But as they say, someday, children must learn to put away childish things…"

Lucy's eyes widened as Aries tossed her key ring into the brawl that was currently happening in the Guild. She'd never find them in this chaos!

Narrowing her eyes, she pulled her whip from her side and held it taunt in front of her as the first couple of men sent their pict magic her way. "Aries, you have to listen to me!"

The blonde girl sent her whip towards a particularly nasty pair of dragons headed her way and watched as they erupted into dust around her, "_You_ are a key! _My_ key! You tried to save me and were punished by being cast into the human world by the Celestial King!"

Aries scoffed and scowled as she watched Lucy defeat the Red Hood members with ease. "Don't you think I'd know if I was a spirit and you were my master?"

Lucy shook her head as she defeated the last of the men getting in her way and chanced a glance to her left to check on Gray. He seemed to be doing fine dodging between the two enraged Spirits who were shouting over their ruined card game. The table seemed to have been flipped over and cards scattered everywhere in the midst of the frozen and unconscious forms of the Red Hood Guild wizards and their notepads.

"I don't know what happened," Lucy began as she turned back to her spirit, "but somehow you've lost your memories unlike what happened to Loke—"

"Loke?" She questioned, putting a finger to her lips in thought and looking so much like her old self that Lucy's hope rose. The blonde could see her key ring glowing out of the corner of her eye and began shuffling towards it.

Aries blinked and shook her head, seeming to come back from whatever was going through her mind at that moment. Just trying to remember what happened caused Aries enormous waves of pain that wracked her body.

"How convenient for you to not know what happened to my memory of you. I don't even know your name!" She shouted, holding her head in pain.

_Bringing her memories is hurting her. If I sent her back to the Spirit world, I'm sure she could get them back faster and easier. Where are Erza and—_

"Natsu!"

The blonde whipped her head around towards the enraged voice of the red headed weapons mistress on the second floor only to see her standing in a now singed and slightly on-fire doorway. Natsu leapt from above her and appeared behind Lucy in a blur of pink and tossed her Aries' key.

"Luce, catch!"

Snagging the key out of the air, the blonde Celestial Wizard brought it into the air above her head. Aries' eyes widened and she began to charge towards Lucy.

"Forced Gate Closure! Gate of the Ram!" She shouted, in just enough time for Aries to disappear into a haze of golden light in front of her. Lucy covered her face with her arms as the impact knocked her back a few steps.

When the light faded, the blonde girl blinked and removed her arms from blocking her vision. In her hand she held Aries' key. She could only pray that the Ram regained all of her memories, and soon.

"ARIES!" Sagittarius and Scorpio boomed at the same time, turning to Lucy with malice and hatred in their eyes.

"What have you done to her?" Scorpio yelled, making his way at a menacing pace towards her, Sagittarius staying a few steps behind and pulling out a bow and arrows.

"I-I…" Lucy stuttered not used to being on the receiving end of her spirit's wrath.

"Give her back!" He shouted, darting towards her when there was suddenly someone blocking the Spirit in front of her. Another person appeared next to her and placed two cool objects in her hand.

She turned her head and was met with Erza, a small smile playing at her lips as she nudged Lucy forward. The Celestial Wizard quickly whipped her head towards Natsu who had engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Scorpio. The dragon slayer had already received some nasty wounds, making Lucy's heart stutter in worry.

Heaving her arm up with the Gate of the Scorpion Key held in it, she chanted the words, making Scorpio fall into flakes of gold. Natsu turned and grinned at her around the bruised cheek he was currently sporting, showing her a thumbs up.

Lucy began to smile when something out of the corner of her eye took her attention away from him.

Sagittarius with his bow; arrow hooked and aimed.

Straight at Natsu.

Lucy lurched forward and watched as confusion crossed his face as he turned around to see what made her so terror-stricken.

"NATSU!"

X

x

X

**I know…I know it's late…I'm SOSOSO SORRY PLEASE STILL LOVE ME.**

**I agree with your song choice Erin Burhans, thanks for your input!**

**It's raining and I just edited this chapter at the speed of light because I love the rain and thunder and lightning and it makes my stories so much better when it's raining and AH.**

…**sorry….about that…**

**So mmhm, yeah another cliffy (sorry) BUT did you guys like it hm? HmM? **

**Yes, my take on how the spirits would act as humans was a little…off kilter I know but it was at least different from what you've read before, yeah? **

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LOVELY REVIEWS ^.^**

**REVIEW FOR ME, MY LOVELY READERS!**


	9. Chapter 9: The High Road

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Fairy Tail! Or Three Days Grace!**

**Chapter Nine: The High Road**

_There's times I stayed alive for you_

_There's times I would've died for you_

_I took the low road in_

_I'll take the high road out_

_I'll do whatever it takes_

_To be the mistake you can't live without_

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Her arms felt like weights as they reached out to his shoulders, trying to twist him around and shove him out of the way. When she collided with his chest, it felt as if she had hit cement wall in front of her. She swung her entire body around in an attempt to pull him in a circular path and put her in the way of the arrow instead of him, but Natsu didn't budge.

Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and held her still even as she struggled to tug him out of the way. The pink haired man turned his body and curled it into hers and rested his cheek on hers for a split second before Lucy heard it.

The derisive sound of flesh being parted and torn into.

Lucy's brown eyes widened and felt his arms go loose around her. No. Natsu couldn't be hurt this badly; not enough for him to collapse. Looking down, she saw crimson staining the front of her shirt and soaking the ground between them.  
"Natsu…" She whispered as she looked up. His eyes were slightly glazed and his face was contorted in pain; the sight causing Lucy's heart to give a painful lurch.

"Lucy! Watch out!"

Time swung back into place as the blonde whipped her head behind her to the sound of Erza's voice. The red headed woman was already stepping forward and drawing her sword as she looked behind Natsu.

The Celestial Wizard quickly drew the Key of the Archer as Natsu began to slump his weight into her.

Looping her arms under his arms and trying to ignore the fact that his lips were pressing against her bare shoulder, Lucy raised her eyes away from inspecting the pink haired man to scan behind him. Sagittarius came into view over the man's shoulder and Lucy could see that he was already taking aim at the boy sagging in her arms.

"Sagittarius! Please, stop!" She shouted.

The dark haired man merely looked at her for a split second before narrowing his eyes once again in aim.

Making a split second decision that would probably have made Natsu have a panic attack if he was coherent, the blonde moved the boy to the ground to her right as she crouched next to him before trying to dodge the arrow that was whistling towards her.

Lucy could make out the path that it would take from the way her Spirit's eyes were trained in front of him. Being with her Celestial Spirits for years and learning all of their techniques gave her an advantage that no one else would in battle.

Sagittarius released the arrow and Lucy twisted her left shoulder forward as she bent to protect the pink haired man lying on the ground. Ignoring the pain that laced through her from the arrow now embedded in her right arm, the blonde hopped to her feet and raised the key for the man in front of her.

"Forced close! Gate of the Archer, Sagittarius!"

The archer in front of her exploded into golden dust, but not before Lucy caught the look of complete disdain and anger in his eyes. Shaking off the feeling of guilt (these were _her_ keys, right?), Lucy immediately felt to her knees beside the pink haired man lying still on the ground.

"Oh Natsu, you idiot…" She mumbled to him even as she began to frantically tear the bottom of her shirt into strips.

The blonde vaguely heard the sound of ice being crushed by Erza as she freed Gray, who had apparently encased his own leg in ice by accident and shook her head slightly even as she smiled lightly. No mission would ever go completely right with their team.

Bringing her attention back to the boy still lying unconscious on the ground, she broke off the end of the point of the arrow and pulled it the rest of the way through his torso. Lucy cringed as the arrow left his body with a squelching liquid sound and blood began to pour out at an alarming rate.

The blonde got to her knees and pressed a wad of her shirt onto the hole to slow the bleeding. The blonde grimaced as she tried she tried to ignore the fact that her knees were sliding in his blood on the floor. Once she felt that the rush had died down a little, she wrapped his torso with the remaining strips of her shirt and the one Gray offered out to her when he hobbled over.

Erza sighed as Lucy finished the bindings and stood up, dusting her hands on her shorts and refusing to look at the bloody mess that was her person at the moment.

"We need to get him to a healer. Gray, carry him on your back and Lucy, make sure you get your arm cleaned up enough so Natsu won't throw us through a building for letting you get hurt. We leave in five."

XxX

The light from the burning candle in the room was barely enough for Lucy to see the boy lying on the bed not three feet away from her. The day had swiftly turned to night and the inn they found had no way of getting them better lighting, so the blonde was stuck in a warm room with no light in the middle of the dark.

She sighed and looked to her left out of the window that provided her with the occasional gust of cool wind. The day had been successful overall and no one had been fatally injured, so why had the knot not gone away from her stomach yet?

It could be because all of her Spirits had seemed distrustful of her and her friends.

Surely they'd remember her soon, right?

The Celestial Wizard moved the smooth ring through her fingers as she flipped through the additional three keys held there.

Lucy couldn't fathom why they were having an extreme bought of amnesia, even as far as Aries being convinced that she wasn't a Spirit at all!

Though, when she mentioned Loke, a switch seemed to be awfully close to flipping in her mind. The pink haired girl did have memories, but they were being suppressed somehow. But why? Why would someone want to repress the memories of a Celestial Spirt and better yet, who had the power to?

The answer came to her before the thought was finished in her mind.

The Spirit King.

As additional punishment for coming to her aid when they thought she was dying, the King took away all of their fond memories of Lucy, Fairy Tail, and the knowledge that they were Spirits at all.

The realization made Lucy want to punch a hole in the nearest wall and scream at the big blue asshole! Just because he had the title King didn't mean that he could just go around doing whatever he wanted! This was free will she was talking about! That couldn't just be taken away!

The blonde had to take a deep breath as she pressed the heels of her palms over her closed eyes. She had to remind herself that Aries, Sagittarius and Scorpio were all safe with her now. They would get their memories back in no time in the Spirit world while they had time to rest and everything would be fine.

Thinking about where her _other_ Spirits were currently was too depressing at the moment, so she steered clear of those thoughts.

Lucy lifted her elbow and propped it on the windowsill so she could rest her head in her palm and watch the steady rise and fall of Natsu's chest as he breathed in his sleep.

The medic that had looked at Natsu had said that if the shot had been a mere two inches to the left, the arrow would have parted his spine and killed him instantly. The thought that she could have lost the pink haired man that suddenly made her breath to come short and her heart to squeeze painfully. The blonde couldn't dwell on the thought too long, or she would end up sobbing on Erza's shoulder.

_Maybe this was what Natsu felt when I was in danger of dying. _She thought, but swiftly dismissed the thought. Of course her pain wasn't anywhere _near_ what he felt. She had actually been dead and buried for God's sake!

The thought made her frown. It was true that she had been keeping her distance from him more than the others, but the others hadn't said what had been on their mind as he had.

_You should have stayed in that coffin and never gotten my hopes up that you would love me; you lied that you did! I could never fall in love with someone so selfish and heartless! _

The thought made her hand automatically stray to the round burn mark on her thigh. The ring had left a scar that would probably never go away, but she didn't mind; that was her way of reminding herself that she was no good for him.

Now that she thought about it, she wondered what happened to the rings. She had purposely left them in her room so she wouldn't be reminded of him while being with her Spirits, but where they still there?

The blonde vaguely remembered Natsu speaking to her about the twin rings but she had been too immersed in her own thoughts to really hear what he was saying. Whatever he'd said, it was in one ear and out the other.

She shrugged the thought off. It didn't really matter; he shouldn't want anything to do with her now anyway.

The blonde didn't resent Natsu for the things he said, in fact, she was glad for what he said. Now she knew where they stood when it came to each other.

Lucy rose to her feet and raised her hands above her head; her back popping in multiple places. She grimaced at the sound, but she figured it served her right for being in the same position at Natsu's bedside all night.

The Celestial Wizard crept towards the door but paused as the boy stirred on the bed and sighed complacently. Something in her stomach lurched painfully as it reminded her of the morning before their last mission.

How Natsu had held her close to him all night and the way he looked at her. How safe she'd felt; how loved and cared for. The boy had probably thought that she hadn't noticed but she had. Oh, she had.

And it scared her.

The intense stare of a man that would go to the end of the world to protect and love you was always more terrifying than one that looked on in lust and greed.

Natsu cared for her more than anyone else. Sure, Gray and Erza would put their life on the line to help her in battle, but the pink haired man…

He would lie, die, kill—_anything_ for her to be happy.

Warmth spread through her chest as she smiled softly and she found her feet making their way to his bedside. So why was she so determined to keep him away? Why not accept his love for her and let that grow and mature until they had the closest bond that could never be broken?

The blonde's hand reached out to push some stray hair away from his sleeping face when the limb paused in midair.

Should she get in deeper? It was true what he said about her; all of it. She was selfish and heartless. No guy deserved to have such a person in their life; _especially_ Natsu. He deserved the loveliest, kindest, most honorable woman there was out there and here she was clouding his thoughts.

She wished that she had stayed in that coffin too; if only so he could have moved on and loved another girl.

The blonde dropped her hand back to her side and held her breath to keep from crying.

She swiftly blew out the candle next to his bed and spun on her heel as she quietly made her way towards the door and didn't look back.

Who knew that having half of your heart torn from you could hurt this bad?

XxX

"What do you mean you're going to Phantom Lord _by yourself_?" Erza bellowed as she watched Lucy clip on her belt.

The blonde cringed and chanced a look at the foot of the stairs next to her to see if Natsu had flung himself down the stairs when he heard those words, but he didn't. Mentally sighing, Lucy continued to get ready for the journey to get her other keys back.

She had learned from last time that if she brought up another Spirit, it triggered their memories and caused them pain for a few seconds. Though she didn't like that she was causing her Spirits any more pain than needed, it had to be done to give her a window of opportunity large enough to drag them back to the Spirit world.

"_Hello_," Erza shouted, knocking Lucy lightly on the temple with her knuckles, "Earth to Lucy. You can't do this one by yourself. You need us to help you; that's what we're here for, remember?"

The blonde shook her head and finally turned to face the red headed woman. Seeing as how it was the crack of dawn, the weapons mistress hadn't even bothered to requip out of her pajamas yet; her hair frizzy and all over the place.

Lucy had the annoying thought that if she'd just waited another five minutes, she would have been out of the inn before Erza had even gotten up to get a drink of water.

Though Lucy figured that was just a cover story for the mighty Titiana who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere when Lucy began to make her way to the front doors. The red headed woman was probably watching her to keep her from doing something this bizarre.

"Natsu is in no condition to help out today and Gray is tired from getting a beating from both Sagittarius and Scorpio yesterday. We can't just leave them here alone, either. The whole place will be burned down and then caught in a blizzard by the time we get back." Lucy proclaimed, knowing that she was right.

Erza snorted increduously, reminding Lucy of an angry bull, "Then they come with us."

"And do what?" Lucy asked, her patience evaporating with the rising of the sun. "Sit outside and play hopscotch while we fight? We both know that those two would be in the Guild in two seconds, threats from you or not."

The red headed woman paused and narrowed her eyes, her finger coming to rest on her chin, "And you won't wait until they get better?"

Lucy shook her head, "My Spirits' days are numbered low in the human world already."

Erza sighed, "Fine. Then this is what we'll do: You and I will leave now and get your keys. I will leave a note saying where we are among other things that will motivate them to stay here. If we're lucky we'll be back before they even wake up."

"You'll risk the inn?"

"I'll risk the inn."

XxX

"_I'm so glad you risked the inn."_

They were lucky that the Element 4 were gone on a mission; they were having trouble enough with the other members of the guild. There was no 'blending in' in this Fairy Tail-hating Guild.

Erza smiled maniacally as she tossed yet another guild member into one of the support beams. Lucy couldn't help but think that Erza was getting sadistic pleasure from having an excuse to trash the enemy building while she beat up the members of the Guild that caused her and the other Fairy Tail members so much grief.

"Just get to your Spirits!" Erza yelled back over her shoulder.

Lucy nodded once and turned to the first one she could see; Virgo.

Before she and Erza just waltzed into the front doors of the Guild, the red headed woman had the forethought to find the keys first. Lucky for them, the window leading to the upper floors was unlocked and they slipped right in; avoiding anyone they could on the second floor and taking care of the ones that they couldn't get around.

The memory of her and Erza dragging unconscious bodies into a locked room while the weapons mistress was smiling evilly gave her both smug satisfaction and caused goose bumps to erupt all over her skin at the same time.

The present snapped back into focus as Virgo smashed a boulder right above Lucy's head. The pink haired girl cackled at the way Lucy crumpled to the ground after a chunk of the rock fell on her head and the blonde scowled.

Virgo had apparently decided that she'd had enough of waiting on other people and her apparel made that quite clear. She had decided to grow her hair out it seemed and coal black eyeliner rimmed her eyes in a haunting way. Black leather pants and stretched black and white T shirt ran on top of the four inch spiked stilettos she wore. Obviously playing off of the fact that she still had manacles attached to her wrists, she wore chains as bracelets and the metal hanging off her as impromptu whips.

Lucy dragged herself off the floor and wiped the blood that ran down her face away from her eyes as she gripped the key in her hand even harder. This time there was no Natsu to jump in front of her if something went wrong which she was oddly glad for. Now she could face her Spirits without worrying about the pink haired man.

Her thoughts instantly jumped and latched on to the dragon slayer. Images of him sleeping last night, _his_ blood that ran down the shower when she cleaned off her body, the way she wanted to run her fingers through his hair and stay with him the night before…

Two hands suddenly seized both of her wrists and she growled at her own stupidity as she pulled against the restraints. Now was not the time to be caught daydreaming!

The blonde looked to her left and right, only slightly surprised when she saw two mini Virgos on either side. Gemi and Mini spoke at the same time as she kicked her legs at them to try and get them to let her go.

"We've got you!" They proclaimed as they smiled ruefully up at her.

Lucy looked forward and saw the real Virgo marching towards her with her hand raised and a chain dangling in the air threateningly. The blonde panicked for a split second and glanced down to the key ring on her hip. She hadn't wanted to bother them while they were recuperating and she still didn't know if they remembered her or not, so the thought of summoning one of her gold keys worried her. It seemed that she didn't really have much of a choice now.

Using every ounce of her strength, Lucy pulled both of her arms together and whipped her elbow to the right; striking one of them just hard enough for her to be stunned. Gemi released her arm for a split second and the Celestial Mage made the best of it; reaching down and grabbing her key ring while she could.

"Open! Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"

Blinding white light erupted in front of her and Lucy squinted against it; eager to see her Spirit from the first time in months. The red and white haired man from the Red Hood Guild stood there no longer. In his place stood the Scorpio she knew and loved, tail and all.

Lucy grinned as the pressure from Gemi and Mini slackened at the realization that this was someone they knew. The blonde could have smacked herself for how easy this was. She should have thought of summoning someone they knew in the first place!

"Forced close! Gate of the—ach!" Lucy stumbled as Scorpio's tail knocked her feet out from under her. The wizard raised her head from where she lay with her back pressed to the floor to see the man looking at her with distaste.

"What was that for?!" She shouted, rising to her feet gingerly. The blonde swayed on her feet as the vertigo from hitting her head came back to haunt her.

"Just because I turned out to be a Spirit doesn't mean I trust you, blondie. We don't even have a contract. Cheh." The man smirked at her and snapped his fingers and just like that, Scorpio was gone.

The other Spirits looked at her in confusion and Lucy seized her chance.

"Close, Gate of the Twins!" She yelled, brandishing the key in her hand with pride.

The two mini Virgos disappeared with a startled yelp and Lucy placed the glowing key in her pocket with a smirk. Now, all she had to—

A searing pain laced through her body as one of Virgos chains slashed across her back as the Spirit let out an outraged cry. Lucy cried out in pain and dimly noted that Erza called out for her in worry. Looking through bleary eyes as she tried not to fall face first into the floor, she realized that the red headed woman was taking on Capricorn one on one.

The usually quiet and reserved Spirit had turned completely humanoid. He still towered over everyone and was still muscular in every way, with the only difference being that instead of being covered head to toe in white goat hair, his head was a mop of white instead. Lucy couldn't tell if his eyes had changed seeing as how the sunglasses were still in place.

The blonde gingerly touched her side and her hand came back covered in blood. Rising to her feet for what seemed to be the one hundredth time that day, Lucy turned to the laughing woman and drew her own whip.

One key down, two to go.

XxX

_Whoah-oh Natsu's not gonna be happy about this. _The ice mage thought as limped over to a chair in the lobby of the hotel with Erza's letter in hand.

He'd figured that he and Natsu would sit out the next couple of days, but the thought had never crossed his mind that the girls would strike out on their own. _Especially_ at Phantom Lord.

The mages there were dangerous and powerful and given that Lucy and Erza were both Fairy Tail, that amps up the danger factor tenfold. Gray sighed and put the letter down on the small table next to him.

Lifting his foot to inspect the damage once again, he chuckled lightly to himself. What a stupid way to hurt himself. If anyone asked, it was all Erza's fault for breaking the ice with the tip of her sword.

Her intentions were in the right place, but when the sword didn't chip away at the ice and instead went _right through it_ (i.e. through _his foot_), Gray blamed her.

Gray set his wounded appendage down when he heard the sound of footsteps approaching behind him.

"Hey Gray, have you seen Lucy and Erza? I can't find them anywhere."

The black haired man turned his head slightly to the right so he could see the dragon slayer rubbing the back of his neck nervously behind him. "And have you been anywhere besides you room and the stairs?" He asked slowly.

Natsu turned to him with fire in his eyes, "Hey! It's not like I even know how I _got here_ okay?! Last I knew, we were fightin' in Red Hood and then I'm here and I don't know where anyone is and I have to wake up to _your_ face which, _God_, of all the people, really, I'd rather see Gramps right now as long as it wasn't you—"

Gray growled loudly and sprang to his feet, letter in hand. He was tired of hearing the pink haired man talk already. "Don't you ever just _shut up?!_"

"I'll do as I please, you icicle!"

"Flame Brain!"

"At least I don't strip to my boxers in front of childr—!"

"Lucy and Erza are gone!"

"Ha! Well, you—I—what?"

Gray watched with grim satisfaction as Natsu's face fell and turned serious and pinched in worry as he read the letter the ice mage handed him.

"What are you going to do?" The black haired man asked as the dragon slayer took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.

Instead of answering the question, Natsu sat down. And stood up. And paced. And sat down. And stood up…and paced…

XxX

Lucy's head lolled against the cold armor her cheek was pressed against as she began to regain consciousness. It seemed that she was currently on Erza's back and being walked back to the inn that they stayed at the night before. She tried not to be stricken with terror that the sun was about to set and that the boys were probably awake and ready to yell at them (_her_) for going alone.

"It's about time you woke up." Erza said, hitching her a little higher on her back, "I was beginning to worry."

"W-what happened?" Lucy mumbled against the metal, her tongue feeling like a hundred pounds and her head even heavier.

"Well you defeated Gemini quite easily by summoning Scorpio, but it didn't exactly go as planned—"

"I know, I know." The blonde sighed, "What happened to Virgo?"

"Well," She paused as she saw the inn come into sight and heard Lucy groan in pain, making her speed her steps slightly as she tried not to jostle her too much, "You two pretty much had a whip battle. I'm not surprised you passed out. She must have hit you with those chains at least four times. Three times in the back and once it wrapped around your wrist. Your back will probably be a miracle of medical science after this."

Lucy laughed lightly, but it ended in gasps and sharp intakes of breath that made Erza cringe. "Ouch." She mumbled.

"So anyway, Virgo threw a boulder at you and thought that she had you pinned, but apparently not because you shot out from underneath it with her key in your hand and you sent her back to the spirit world."

The blonde let out a grunt of acknowledgement and Erza smiled slightly. Lucy had gotten so much stronger since she'd come back.

"I'm proud of you, Lucy."

Lucy smiled and thanked the requip mage. It really did mean a lot to her that she would say that, but the fatc that she was currently riding on Erza's back after one battle made her doubt the truth in that statement.

Determined to show that she was strong enough to at least _walk_ on her own, Lucy shimmied off the red head's back and ignored the outraged cries behind her from the woman warning her about over exerting herself.

If she wanted to over exert herself, then she damn well _would, _Lucy thought triumphantly.

The thought only lasted for a few moments however, because when the inn came within about half a mile of walking distance, Lucy's stomach sunk and her heart then beat faster.

She would be seeing Natsu after last night and though he didn't know her thoughts or what might have happened, _she_ did. This realization coupled with the fact that she probably looked like a bloody mess probably wouldn't make for a very good reunion.

Lucy consciously slowed her steps, but an insistent hand at her back kept her moving forward even as she began to have fantasies about turning tail and running. Running away from the feelings that were quickly bubbling to the surface about her pink haired teammate that she had so perfectly squashed after realizing that she may hurt him the closer she got to him.

_You can't be with him. He's too good for you; all yo u ever do is hurt him mentally and get him hurt physically. You can't be with him. You shouldn't be with him. You're friends, that's all._

_Friends, partners, teammates…_

_FRIENDS. _

Lucy had a feeling that the longer they stayed close to each other and the longer he continued to care for and protect her, the easier it would be to silence that nagging voice lying in the back of her head.

X

x

X

**Yeah so…yeah. **

**Yay for quick updates! **

**THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE REVIEWS, GUUYS! **

**REVIEW FOR ME AGAIN PLEASE!**

**And maybe next time….**

**There will be feelings and lovey-dovey fluff with our favorite pairing!**


	10. Chapter 10: Safe and Sound

**Discalimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Lucy would be a badass. **

**Chapter Ten: Safe and Sound**

_Just close your eyes_

_The sun is going down_

_You'll be alright_

_No one can hurt you now_

_Come morning light_

_You and I'll be safe and sound_

_I will be calm. I will be calm. They're okay. She's alright. I'm calm. I'm perfectly—_

"What were you _thinking?"_

Lucy flinched backwards in the doorway of the inn she walked into, her body tensing at the infuriated growl that reached her ears. Natsu flew out of the chair he had currently been sitting in, forgoing all thoughts of being rational and calm as he took in her appearance up close.

The back of her shirt was torn and bloody from what looked like a whip striking out at her. Her hair was matted to her head in a mass that he assumed used to be crimson but was now a dull brown and she curled her arm around behind her as she saw him eyeing the three welts on it in the style of what looked to be bracelets.

The pink haired man ignored his own injuries as he felt the wound in his torso reopen and walked up to the girl still wavering in the doorway. An armored fist came up from behind her and placed a hand on Lucy's right shoulder, making Natsu hesitate.

The blonde turned her head slightly and shuffled out of the way of the other woman to let her into the inn. Natsu followed Erza accusingly with his eyes as she grabbed a bored Gray and dragged him towards the other side of the room.

He heard an irritated huff and whipped his head back to its source. Lucy looked up at him, an annoyed expression on her face, "I can make my own decisions, Natsu."

_Apparently not. _He wanted to say, pointedly looking at her blood matted body. He wanted to grab her. To shake her and try to rattle some common sense into her; but he didn't. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Clean up and then come talk to me." He couldn't stand to see her in such a state. He may commit murder.

Lucy hesitated before nodding and heading towards the stairs, ignoring the way Erza and Gray followed her with their eyes. As far as she was concerned, the only eyes that she wanted watching her were the ones currently glaring a hole into the floor beneath him.

XxX

She entered the room she'd sat in for the longest time the night before and Lucy automatically tensed. Natsu turned and whirled around to look at her face, but she ducked her head so her hair covered any expression there. Frowning but choosing not to say anything about it, the pink haired man dropped his gaze and walked around her to close the door.

Lucy heard the door click shut and her heart stuttered wildly in her chest. Was he going to yell at her for leaving? Sure, she was a little bloody and bruised, but she was okay and that was all that mattered, right?

She felt Natsu's presence behind her, not one foot away as he hesitated at the door, his hand probably still on the knob as he debated what to do.

The room was stifling with words that were being left unsaid and feelings that went unfelt.

Natsu appeared in her line of sight once again and she watched his back as he walked away from her, crossing his arms over his chest and facing the window.

For a few seconds, Lucy only looked at him. Night was falling once again and the sunset shone in on his tanned skin. He had showered and changed from the rumpled clothes she had seen him in the night before and now only wore a white T shirt and loose black sweat pants—surprisingly low-key for him. The blonde could see where the bandages were still wrapped round his torso through the thin fabric and was happy to see that it had at least stopped profusely bleeding.

Letting out a quiet sigh of relief she didn't know she'd been holding, Lucy allowed herself to feel a little bit of the exhaustion from her fight and perched herself on the foot of his bed, her legs dangling lightly over the edge.

Sensing that he wasn't going to be the one to start this conversation, she took a deep breath, "Natsu…I…I'm fine…"

The boy's shoulders tensed and he slowly turned to look at her.

When she had entered the room, it had taken all of his willpower to not grab her, pull her into a hug and try to protect her from any harm. Instead of acting on his whims, Natsu had opted for turning away from her and gathering his thoughts.

But now that he had turned to face her full on, now that he could see the uncertain look on her face as she sat, now clean and only slightly bruised, on the edge of his bed, he couldn't hold back any longer. The pink haired man padded towards her and placed his hands gently on both of her shoulders, watching as her soft brown eyes rose up to meet his.

She looked so small—so delicate, from this angle; the image was only enhanced by the fact that she was wearing a shirt that suspiciously looked like one of his and was way too large for her. His eyes flickered down to sweep her body once again for any injuries but quickly averted his eyes when he saw that she was using his shirt as a dress and exposing her a lot for him to see.

Red dusted his cheeks and Natsu brought his eyes back to hers once again, saying the first thing that came to mind, "Do you know how scared I was?"

"I was with Erza—"  
She cut off her quiet mumble when he shook his head, closing his eyes, "I meant all those months ago. All those months ago when I found you tacked to a tree in the middle of the forest. All alone—bloody and broken."

He swallowed and Lucy watched his pained expression as he kept his eyes closed. His hands drifted from her shoulders to gently caress either side of her neck, sweeping his thumbs along her cheeks and causing the blonde to relax into his touch.

"And then what I said to you in your house—" Here he broke off when a strangled noise ripped at the back of his throat.

Lucy placed both hands on top of his and rubbed her thumb against the back of his hands. His brown eyes snapped open as he looked down at her with a haunted expression. The blonde ran her hands up the length of his arms as she stood, now almost a head shorter than the dragon slayer, and looked into his eyes with such sincerity that Natsu's stomach erupted with butterflies.

Gripping his biceps lightly, Lucy steeled her voice, willing him to believer her, "I know—I know you probably didn't mean what you said back there. You were confused and angry because I was destroying myself and you didn't know what to do—"

"But I still shouldn't have said—"

The blonde slid one hand to cover his mouth as she continued, "But you were right about me."

The dragon slayers eyes widened at this in disbelief as he shook his head wildly, her hand still covering his mouth.

"Yes—yes you _were_ right, Natsu. I…I understand how greedy I have been with you ever since then. I always needed you, always required your protection, always made you fight for the both of us instead of pulling my weight with the group."

The girl sighed and lowered her head, "You're too good for me Natsu; you always have been. You deserve someone better and stronger than me to be with."

Lucy lowered her voice, the boy in front of her having to lean forward and strain to hear what she whispered.

"I deserved what happened to me all those months ago."

Natsu wrenched his face away from her hand and grabbed either side of her face, pressing himself so close to her that she could feel his intense body heat. His eyes blazed into hers with anger and Lucy blinked up at him with confused and defeated eyes. Everything she'd said was true; she was sure he'd understand once she explained that to him.

"Don't you _ever_ say that again." He snarled, his breath fanning out against her face as he breathed hard from the outrage he felt.

Lucy's hands automatically went to his chest; both palms fisted into his shirt against his rapidly rising and falling chest. Not that she thought he would hurt her—she just had to try not to fall back onto the bed that the back of her knees were flattened against.

"It's true—"

"_No_," He began, the heat from his body increasing as his fury rose, "How can you _say that_, Lucy? What happened to you was wrong—it was _disgusting_. Nothing about that was _deserved_." He growled.

Lucy had never seen the dragon slayer this angry before. Her heart fluttered in her chest against her will at the intense gaze he fixed her with as he refused to let her escape his hold.

"Natsu—"

"And as for what I said, I won't forgive myself so easily Luce. _You_ shouldn't forgive me so easily. You're the most precious thing I have and to hurt you the way I did…"

Lucy's breath became shorter as he ducked his head to rest his forehead gently against hers. The blonde chanced a look at his face and saw the pained expression that lay there. She wanted to wipe the look away completely; she wanted to see him smile at her again and look at her with the trust he always held in his eyes.

Lucy tilted her head up ever so slightly and felt the hands that brushed her cheeks loosen until one was caressing her face and the other rested on her hip. Natsu followed her every movement, his eyes flickering down to her lips and back up to the eyes that seemed to glow with warmth.

"I will always forgive you." She whispered.

Natsu sucked in a breath to give some oxygen to his poor racing heart before crushing her lips against his.

Lucy's hands clung to his shirt while she teetered against falling backwards on the bed as the man in front of her pressed against her. Her hands desperately wanted to run through his hair and touch his face, but the position they were in made that impossible.

Letting a tiny smile play at her lips, the blonde let her knees give out and fell backwards onto the bed; a stunned Natsu falling on top of her and just barely holding himself up from crushing her.

Ignoring his confused and lightly amused expression, her hand reached up and ran through his hair, making the boy hovering above her close his eyes in bliss. Biting her lip at the expression on the man's face, Lucy raised her other hand and gently tugged him closer to her.

Quickly complying with her wishes, Lucy barely had time to register the hungry look in the dragon slayers eyes before he leaned back on top of her and kissed her until she was breathless. Her hands dug into his hair almost painfully as he parted her lips with his tongue and slipped it in her mouth, an almost feral noise at the back of his throat.

His tongue explored her mouth and Lucy dug into his hair, pulling him even closer and pressing her mouth harder against his. She caught his lower lip gently with her teeth and relished in the way his hands squeezed her hips in appreciation.

When spots began to blur her vision, the blonde pulled her head away to gasp for air and Natsu continued his assault of kisses along her neck and collarbone. Lucy's hands drifted away from his cotton candy locks and ran down his back as her legs wrapped around his hips.

She could feel as Natsu's breath came quicker against her skin and the blonde tugged against the hem of his white shirt, pulling it close to his shoulders. Sitting up just enough to get the material out of the way, Lucy greedily took in the sight she'd been given for quite a few years but never appreciated.

Lightly tanned skin stretched across taunt muscles loomed over her, the chest of the boy rising and falling, unknowingly flexing each time he did so.

Natsu looked down at Lucy, taking in her swollen lips and flushed cheeks as her eyes roamed over his body, feeling a surge of warmth go through him. Many thoughts were bouncing around in his head, but there was one that stuck out over the rest—

_She's mine._

The feeling in his chest becoming almost too much to bear, Natsu leaned over the girl once again, but this time much more slowly and deliberately. His forearm pressed into the mattress beside her head and the other hand glided up her leg; stopping as he grabbed a handful of material on her upper thigh.

His entire chest was pressed flush with hers and Lucy wanted to be closer. She wrapped her hands around his neck and her legs around his hips and dragged him down tighter, locking him with a kiss once again. Lucy shifted under the boy to breathe better under his crushing weight and Natsu groaned into his mouth.

The blonde pulled away for a second and looked at the boy above her, surprised at the desire that pooled there. His breathing was shallow as he looked down at her. Lucy moved again to see if what she thought was right and the pink haired man dove into the crook of her neck to muffle his groan.

Lucy smiled as he kissed her again roughly.

The material at her thigh that he held rose higher and Natsu pulled up a little to look down at her. His eyes were full of desire and want, but he still paused. He still wanted her to be comfortable and make sure that he had her permission to move forward.

The blonde's heart swelled and she gave him a tiny smile and reassuring nod. Natsu leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a slow languid kiss and then pulled away, locking her eyes with his as she felt his hand move along her outer thigh, up to her ribcage and just barely grazed her breast, making her shiver.

She didn't even remember lifting her head so he could pull the shirt over her head, nor did she remember when her other clothes were gone—or his for that matter. Had she undressed him? All Lucy remembered was the hazy feeling of complete bliss as Natsu breathed her name, held her and kissed her.

How he loved her.

XxX

Lucy pressed herself closer to the heater that was Natsu, her hand splayed against his bare chest and her legs tangled up in his. The blonde knew that the pink haired man was still asleep from the deep and even breaths he was taking and smiled softly.

The sun had not yet fully made it into the sky and she assumed that it was still early in the morning, so Lucy decided to try and get more sleep as well and closed her eyes.

She felt his arm tighten on her waist before loosening once again and lifted her head slightly to peek under her eyelashes at his face. He was apparently in the middle of a dream, his eyelids flickering slightly due to his eyes darting around. She wasn't sure if it was a good dream or a bad one, but from the way that his hand kept clenching her side, she guessed it was a nightmare.

Sitting up a little and clutching the blanket to cover her bare chest with one hand, she brought the other one up to brush along his forehead before sliding her fingers into his hair. Repeating her ministrations until the boy next to her relaxed and his eyes stopped fluttering, Lucy smiled.

It felt good that she could do that for him.

The blonde removed her hand from his hair and clasped both in her lap on top of the blanket that covered them. She stared down at them and shoved down that panic that began to claw at her throat.

Natsu wasn't like other guys. He wouldn't leave her unless she asked him to or was forced to physically. So her fear was unrequited, she decided. Lucy wanted to see where this went and refused to let the impressions of other guys dampen Natsu's chances.

Her breath shortened in panic as her reassuring thoughts did nothing to contain her worry. Sliding to the side of the bed so her feet touched the cool wooden floor, the blonde probed in the darkness until her hand landed on the first shirt she found and tugged it on.

She had to get out of there. The air was stifling; all feeling of relaxation and comfort gone. Natsu was too important for her to lose. She couldn't run the risk of ever losing him; whether from her own hand or from someone else's weapon.

Lucy found her discarded underwear and pulled it on as well as she stood. Emotions were dangerous. They were holes. Places that others can easily use against you and get you to act out of rage and not calculation.

Red alerts were firing and ringing in every direction in her head as she stumbled away from the bed and towards the door. Too close. Too close. Not good enough. Danger. Hurt. Tears. Failure.

Images of battles almost lost because of her weakness flashed in front of her and made her already staggering steps even worse as the rushing in her ears became louder. Clasping her hands over her ears, Lucy stumbled backwards, her knees giving out and plopping her back in the same sitting position she had been in before. Had she not moved at all away from the bed?

Not uncovering her ears, the blonde scrunched her eyes shut and placed her elbows on her knees. The feeling of losing bubbled up inside her. Losing her keys—their untrusting faces shining out at her in the dark, making her insides twist uncomfortably. The possibility of losing Natsu, her parents already being lost, their love, her home—everything.

The feelings inside her pushed their way to the surface and Lucy could feel her body heating up.

_Oh no, not this again. _

"Lucy?"

The blonde snapped her head in the direction of the groggy voice, her eyes flying open in disbelief and shock. She tried to get to her feet, but her body wouldn't obey her and she stayed in the same spot against her will as her body continued to rise in temperature; her blood beginning to feel like it was boiling.

The girl didn't respond as she was too busy gritting her teeth in pain but she could hear as Natsu shifted under the sheets. She assumed he'd sat up from the way his silhouette contorted in the darkness.

"What…what are you doing?" He mumbled, a little more coherently this time.

She knew her skin would be red and blotchy by this time and she grimaced and looked away as the pink haired man lit the candle next to the bed. She heard his mortified gasp as he took in her red skin and burned splotches all over her and leaped out of the bed.

Lucy quickly averted her eyes under the curtain of her hair in fear of seeing him in nothing, seeing as how he had completely forgotten about his state of undress. Lucy let out a pained breath both out of embarrassment and the fire that coursed through her body. She assumed the pink haired boy figured out why she neglected to look at him because she heard Natsu make strangled noise in the back of his throat and the rustle of clothes.

Everything was hard to discern from the way her head felt five times too heavy and her ears seemed to be permanently listening to the ocean, but the next thing she knew, Natsu was on his knees in front of her (a curious glance showed her that he now had boxers on) and looking up at her with concern.

"Do you want me to get Gray?" He asked, his voice sounding strained even to his own ears.

Guilty relief rushed through him as she shook her head. He couldn't help it; if the other man wasn't around her, or _touching_ her, Natsu felt so much better.

Seeing her like this—with burns marring her skin and cuts beginning to form all over her body from cracking open in the heat—made him infuriated.

His face became drawn as Lucy made a small noise of pain and began to reach out for her only to flinch away again. He couldn't touch her; couldn't comfort her, or he would cause her pain. The realization made him want to commit murder. To ruthlessly beat anyone or anything that caused this to happen to her.

He felt useless.

After a few agonizing minutes where Natsu watched with poorly concealed rage and concern up at her, Lucy could feel her rapid heartbeat slow down and her skin even off to a normal temperature. She had never stayed awake through an entire episode, and she noted that this wasn't nearly as bad as the first.

This thought made a thousand others rush into her mind, but she smothered them before she could give herself a headache thinking too hard at the moment. Right now, she would focus on the boy in front of her who seemed to be speaking.

"—me?"

Lucy blinked and removed her hands from her ears to raise her head and look at him fully. "What?"

He cleared his throat and refused to look at her, "Was it because of me?"

When Lucy just looked at him questioningly, Natsu moved from kneeling on the floor in front of her and turned his back to look out the window at the night sky once again. He crossed his arms, his voice quiet and deep, "Did your skin begin to burn because I was…too close…to you?"

Lucy stared at his back in shock, her face contorting into multiple expressions of shock and disbelief. Of course it wasn't his fault. It had been happening even when he was miles away from her. But here it was…her perfect opportunity to push him away. An excuse. An escape.

The blonde opened her mouth to deliver the blow, but all that came out was strangled air. She couldn't do it; she was too selfish. She wanted to keep him near her. She had tried to keep him at arm's length and look at where that got her.

Natsu deserved the truth, not a lie to cover her fear. She would get over this anxiety of exposing herself to him emotionally and knew that he would be okay with her taking time to do so. But that was for another time; not tonight when everything was going so great and then took a turn for the worst.

So Lucy swallowed her fear and rose shakily to her feet. She didn't worry that she was braless and only had his shirt and her panties on. She didn't worry about her Spirits or the Guild. She didn't worry about the thought that everything might be different tomorrow.

Instead, the blonde focused on the pink haired dragon slayer in front of her. Lucy padded over until she was standing right behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle, resting her cheek against the tensed muscles in his back.

"No," She mumbled, Natsu's taunt muscles relaxing at her words, "You didn't cause this."

She felt him take a deep breath and she loosened her grip a little so he could turn around and wrap her in his arms. Natsu held her close for a long time, his cheek resting against the crown of her head.

"We'll figure it out, Luce. I promise."

Natsu felt warm liquid fall onto his chest and he hugged the girl in his arms even tighter; wishing that he could somehow absorb her pain and take it away forever.

XxX

Erza eyed the two out of her peripheral vision while also keeping an ear out for any possible approaching enemies.

Her mind immediately jumped to that morning when the two had come down the stairs at different intervals. Lucy had come down first, sporting fresh burns that marred her body and trying to hide from the red headed requip mage. Erza had instantly jumped to the conclusion that Natsu had done this in either passion or rage and began marching to the stairs to rip him out of the shower and tear him to pieces. Luckily, Lucy stopped her before that could happen and explained the situation, ending in her getting a medic for Lucy and not the pink haired idiot upstairs.

When Natsu came into the dining hall, hair wet and body clean, the blonde's eyes were on him immediately and his were on her. The look they shared was smoldering and Erza recognized the feelings radiating off of them both immediately and decided to corner Lucy later and interrogate her.

Gray, on the other hand was about as subtle as a rock thrown in someone's face.

"What did you guys _do_ last night?!" He bellowed as he raised his eyebrows and smirked.

Erza tried to kick him under the table, but it was hard to hit someone sitting next to her so she ended up kicking Lucy by accident, who was seated in front of her and the blonde jumped and flinched at the contact so Natsu thought Gray had touched Lucy and catapulted out of his seat and onto Gray and long story short Gray got a black eye.

Now on their way to Sabertooth by foot seeing as how any mode of transportation would end in Natsu hurling in the street, Erza took the time to observe Natsu and Lucy while occasionally striking Gray for complaining too much.

The two had a connection to the other. If Lucy faced the right, then Natsu was behind her, watching her back. If Natsu licked his lips one time too many, the blonde was there with her canteen. When she spoke to anyone in town, that was where Natsu was listening.

It was interesting to watch from another point of view, actually. She remembered Lucy commenting about her and Jellal doing the same thing, but Erza thought nothing of it—it was natural to her.

Apparently, Gray had never experienced anything of the sort seeing as how he kept mumbling things like, "Creepy," and, "Stalker," under his breath.

Whatever had happened between the two last night, Erza hoped that it would stay strong through the duration of their trip. She had a bad feeling that the last Guild would hold something from Lucy's nightmares.

XxX

"Okay," Lucy began, taking a deep breath and holding the first golden key out in front of her, "You guys ready?"

Natsu, Gray and Erza stood fanned out in front of her, each one ready to defend if the need arose. Night had fallen and Team Natsu had decided to set up camp in a clearing in the woods and continue to Sabertooth in the morning.

After everyone had settled in, Erza had noticed Lucy fiddling with her keys and suggested testing each one out to check if their memories had resurfaced or not. The blonde's face lit up and immediately took her up on the offer, thus where they were now.

Her team nodded and Lucy waved her hand through the air, "Open! Gate of the Ram! Aries!"

Golden light filled the night and they all tensed as Aries formed in front of them, rising from her bent position and pulling down her white lamb fur shyly.

Her back to the others, her eyes focused on Lucy and began filling with tears.

"Aries?" Lucy began cautiously, watching out of the corner of her eye as Natsu struggled not to come to her side.

The Ram sniffed as tears fell down her cheeks and her hands covered her mouth, shaking her head. Lucy took a hesitant step forward—wanting to comfort her broken Spirit—and that was all it took. Aries threw herself at Lucy, running towards her with speed she normally only used in battle and engulfed her in a hug.

Natsu was suddenly at the blonde's side with a menacing look on his face as he went full-protection mode. Lucy inwardly rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the butterflies that engulfed her belly at his worry.

"I'm so sorry!" Aries wailed, making Lucy temporarily deaf in her left ear. The Ram clutched at the spirit mage in desperation as she continued to babble, Lucy not being able to get a single word in.

"I remember what I did to you and I didn't mean to, I was just so lost and confused and didn't know why was in that Guild or who I was and I'm just so sorry, Lucy please punish me as you see fit! I can't thank you enough for coming to find me I don't know what would have happened to me, actually I do—the Spirit King told us what our punishment was for trying to save you—Oh! You're alive! How?! We tried…but we weren't strong enough and couldn't save you and we were all so sad, especially Loke— he refused to do anything but sit in his realm in silence. Where is everyone? Where is he?"

The blonde pulled the pink haired girl away from her gently by the shoulders and bore her eyes into her Spirit's, "All of you got separated. I haven't gotten to Loke yet…and I don't even know if the rest of the Spirits remember me like you do…"

The Ram's lip quivered as she smiled slightly, "They do!" She shouted, obviously happy to give good news, but covered her mouth and continued on in a much more subdued voice with her cheeks faintly red, "Well, most of them. Some of them just came back…Gemi, Mini, Capricorn and Virgo are all still wary of you, but I'm guessing you just got them back. Sagittarius, Cancer and I are trying to convince them now, but it seems that the longer we stayed in the human world, the longer our amnesia is."  
Lucy nodded, noting that everyone had moved closer to listen in on the conversation, Natsu standing so close that she could feel his body heat radiating onto her right arm. The Spirit sighed and Lucy noticed the fatigue that she had overlooked when Aries had first arrived. There were slight dark circles under her eyes and her posture was slouched. The Celestial Spirit Mage immediately felt bad for overlooking it and gave her a quick side hug.

"You're tired Aries," When the spirit tried to protest, Lucy waved a hand to silence her, "Go back to the spirit realm and rest. I may need you tomorrow. Don't worry; we'll get everyone back safe and sound."

Aries stood for a little while longer and Lucy mustered up enough energy to smile. She hadn't gotten very much sleep the night before and she was beginning to feel its effect on her. The Ram dissipated into gold and Lucy took a deep breath, looking around at her companions.

Natsu's hand brushed against hers and Lucy took comfort by his touch despite the backflips her heart did in her chest.

"Alright," Erza began loudly, shattering the moment completely by clapping her hands once, "Time for sleep. Boys in one tent; girls in the other." She barked, grabbing Lucy's upper arm and dragging her towards a tent while ignoring the shouts of complaints from everyone else.

She was going to get the gossip she wanted and she was going to get it tonight.

A pleased smile stretched across her face and Lucy shuddered in fear. She had a feeling that it was going to be a long night.

**X**

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**I'm exceedingly jealous of the authors who get FanArt. *grumbles and walks away* **

**But I still love you guys to pieces!**

**Sorry about no Spirit huntin' this chapter, but I figured a little NaLu was needed. **

**Thank you so much for all the reviews! I'm sorry it's so late, but I think you guys are tired of hearing my excuses, so here, have some fluff—does that make it a little better?**

**REVIEW FOR ME AGAIIINNNN! :D**


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